





^, 




















V 



Oo. 



.6-' 



■^ .^' 



' 1. .R es. - '<* ^ '^ - ■■'^■■" '- 



■^ 



%..^ 



<lV 



s^<^. 






<^. 









/ » ft N 



.'0 



,•0' 



\' 



^ * « A C 



•^. * .. 



\\' 



.'V 



,-i>- 






.>^^ . 









(J .-. V 



-^ 



.^\^ 






\ 









■/ 



*o. 



<* / 








/ 













'-^ V*' 



M•^ 



\^ 



.0^. 



c- 



'/- 



'o 



•^<^. 



•</» 



xOq. 



■^OO^ 



.^^ 






"b. 



'o 



^> 



^A V^^ 






^^' '^/>, 



^^ 









■^oo'^ 



0-' 



aV 'A 



'^-P, 



k y -^^HjJ/.^ ^ V-'' " * tj 2J ■ 

'0 



.^•^ 



^^ %. 



■\^ 



.^'' 






^ '■ ♦ 






•^ 



.'>S 



.0- 



J' V 



^. 



..^' 



THE 



PURITAN COMMONWEALTH. 



AN 



HISTORICAL REVIEW 



OP THE 



PURITAN GOVERNMENT IN MASSACHUSETTS 



IN ITS 



CIVIL AND ECCLESIASTICAL RELATIONS 



FROM ITS RISE TO THE 



ABROGATION OF THE FIRST CHARTER. 



TOGETHER WITH SOME GENERAL REFLECTIONS ON THE ENGLISH 

COLONIAL POLICY, AND ON THE CHARACTER 

OF PURITANISM. 



BY THE LATE 

PETER OLIVER. 

u 

OP THE SUFFOLK BAR. 



BOSTON: 
LITTLE, BROWN AND COMPANY. 

M.DCCC.LVI. 



/ 






Q 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1856, by 

F. E. Oliver, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 



«* MAK 2> 5 

Copy .... 




Riverside, Cambridge, 
Printed by H. O. Houghton i^ Co. 



PREFACE. 



"The following pages have been wrought, at no 
little expense of time and labor, out of the mate- 
rials at the author's command. The early history 
of New England, the stately commonwealth that 
sprang up under the shadow of the Puritan Church, 
the extraordinary virtues that were called into life 
by a colonization such as the world has seldom or 
never before witnessed, and the moral and political 
results of a new experience in a new world and in 
a superstitious age, are subjects of great interest, 
and which will well repay the inquirer. 

" I have entered upon this study con amore^ and 
have found fresh interest at every step. The sub- 
ject grew formidable, at last, from its variety; but 
doubts had arisen whether the whole truth had ever 
been spoken, and I determined to satisfy myself 
whether they were well founded. The result is 
before the reader. 

" I am aware that I have entered upon a field only 
partially explored. The labor was difficult, because 
it was obscure ; for it has been the fashion to bury 
the errors of our forefathers beneath their many vir- 
tues, and to conceal the whole truth by expressing 
but a part. Every writer, from the earliest times, 



IV PREFACE. 

has done something to hide from our gaze those 
faults which would lead us to doubt the entire vir- 
tue of our ancestors ; and so great have been the 
consequent mistakes, that the ridiculous proposition 
has been maintained, by both judges and historians, 
that the Puritans were lovers of religious freedom, 
and that civil liberty was a principle first understood 
upon the shores of Massachusetts Bay. 

" To question such doctrines is forbidding to those 
who write not so much to instruct, as to win popu- 
larity ; and perhaps a certain degree of moral cour- 
age is necessary, to encounter public opinion on a 
point where it is especially sensitive. It would be 
egotistical in me to claim more of this virtue than 
belongs to persons in general ; at the same time 
that I do not, in this instance, shrink from the per- 
formance of a duty." 

The above forms a portion of a preface but par- 
tially completed, which was found among the man- 
uscripts of the author. The work to which it was 
designed to be an introduction, and the substance 
of which is contained in the present publication, 
was originally written during the leisure hours of a 
commencing professional life, for the pages of a 
review. But the author had determined to revise 
the whole, and prepare it for the press in a separate 
form, and was engaged in this undertaking when 
he was interrupted by death. The fact that he was 
unable to carry out his design, will explain to the 
reader the controversial tone of the work, and an 
occasional warmth of expression, which may be 
thought better suited to the character of periodical 
literature than to the more sustained dignity of his- 
torical composition. 



PREFACE. V 

The work is divided into chapters, and several 
of the chapters are subdivided into parts. Each 
chapter is distinct by itself, and independent of the 
others. 

The first is taken up with the history of the 
charter of The Massachusetts Bay Company ; its 
nature, the ends it was intended to subserve, and 
its fraudulent transfer to Massachusetts. 

The subject of the second chapter is " The Pu- 
ritan Commonwealth ; " its construction, its failure 
to accomplish the end of all government, in the 
preservation of good order and the prevention of 
immorality, and its aggressive spirit toward the 
aboriginal tribes. 

The third chapter discusses "The Puritan Church;" 
its construction, its intolerance, as shown in the per- 
secution of the Familists, Quakers, and Baptists, 
and its missionary claims, as compared with those 
of the Church of England and the Church of 
Rome. 

The fourth chapter is political in its character, 
and shows the spirit of discontent and rebellion 
that actuated the colonists from the first. 

The fifth, commencing with a succinct history 
of the Church down to the time of the Reforma- 
tion in England, asserts the gradual degeneracy of 
the Puritans, after their separation from the great 
Catholic body. 

The sixth, and last, contains reflections on the 
English colonial policy, and on the general charac- 
ter and tendencies of Puritanism. 

It is believed that, in the treatment of his sub- 
ject, the author has brought to light many facts 
which have been hitherto passed over in silence by 



VI PREFACE. 



the historian, and has presented others, more fami- 
liar to the general reader, in a way to excite new- 
interest and attention. At any rate, the cause of 
truth can never suffer from discussion and inquiry; 
and it is in this confidence that the editor, in exe- 
cuting a trust which circumstances seemed to have 
imposed upon him, submits the following pages to 
the candor of an impartial and discriminating 
public. F. E. o. 

Boston, July 23, 1856. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

The Charter of the Massachusetts Bay Company and King 
Charles the First. 

Grant of James I. to the Colonial Companies of London and 

Plymouth 7 

The Northern Company but partially successful 8 

Obtains a fresh Grant 9 

But again fails i o 

Formation of a new Company, which likewise fails lo 

Rise of a Missionary Spirit i r 

Which leads to a new Organization 12 

Endecott appointed Superintendent 12 

The Company obtains a Royal Charter 13 

Cradock first Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Company 13 

Endecott becomes a Brownist- • • 16 

Persecutes the Brownes 17 

Transfer of the Charter proposed 20 

Decided upon 21 

Objects of this Measure 22 

True Character and Object of the Charter 23 

The Puritan State charged with Disloyalty, and with violating the 

Rights of the King's Subjects 34 

Sir Christopher Gardiner 35 

Thomas Morton 37 

Philip Ratcliff • • • • 39 

The Council orders an Investigation 40 

Further Complaints against the Puritan State 41 

Cradock ordered to exhibit the Charter 41 

Appointment of a Royal Commission 44 

Which directs its Attention to the Transfer of the Charter 45 

Orders the Transmission of the Charter to England 48 

The Order not complied with 48 

Vindication of Charles I. 49 



CHAPTER n. 

The Puritan Commonwealth. 

Part I. 

Nature of the Corporation Government 52 

The Magistrates assume to be an Oligarchy 53 



Vlll 



CONTENTS. 



The Freemen claim to be a privileged Body 56 

Struggle between the Aristocratic and Liberal Parties 57 

The General Court becomes a Legislature 60 

The Magistrates call the Elders to their Support 61 

The Elders establish a Council for Life 63 

They erect the Magistrates into a Senate 66 

The Judicial Authority conferred by the Charter 76 

The Puritan State claims the Common Law 78 

The Assistants claim to be Judges 80 

The Freemen demand a Body of Laws 81 

The Criminal Code of the Puritan State 83 

The Moral Influence of the Puritan State 90 

Part IL 

Moral Character of the Government of the Puritan State 99 

As illustrated by its Treatment of the Aborigines 100 

The Pequods. 106 

The Murder of John Oldham 108 

Leads to an Invasion of the Pequod Territory no 

The Pequods seek Alliance with the Narragansetts 112 

Who enter into a Treaty with Massachusetts 113 

Total Destruction of the Pequods 114 

Fate of the Leaders of this Expedition, an Instance of Divine Retri- 
bution 116 

The Narragansetts 118 

Intrigue of the Mohegans 120 

Defeat and Capture of Miantonimo 122 

His Fate ; 124 

The Narragansetts seek the Aid of Massachusetts, to avenge his Death- 126 

But without Success 127 

The Treatment of their Deputation • • 129 

Desperate Condition of this Tribe 1 30 

A new Treaty extorted from them 131 

Their Lukewarmness in its Observance, a Cause of Alarm 132 

Preparations for War • 132 

Destruction of the Narragansetts 133 

Heroism of Canonchet 133 

The Wainpanoags 1 35 

Treachery and Death of Sausamon 139 

Which leads to War 140 

Fall of Philip 144 

War with the Tarranteens 146 

The Puritans seek the Alliance of the Mohawks 148 

Defeat of the Allies 149 

Terrible Effects of the Puritan Wars 150 



CHAPTER III. 
The Puritan Church. 
Part I. 
The Fundamental Principle of Independency- •• • 



155 



CONTENTS. IX 

The Puritans avow the Doctrines of Independency, but are false to 

its Principles 156 

Peculiar Position of the Elders 157 

Practical Inconveniences of the Contract System 159 

To remedy which, the Covenant is devised 162 

Want of Unity and Vitality in the Church 165 

The Antinomian Heresies 169 

Condemned by a Synod 178 

Banishment of the Antinomian Leaders 180 

Subsequent Condition of the Puritan Church 182 

Divisions on the Subject of Baptism 184 

Part II. 

Intolerant Spirit of the Puritan Church 191 

Rise of the Familists 194 

Persecution of Gorton • ; 195 

The Quakers 205 

The Anabaptists 219 

Persecutions in Massachusetts, Violations of the Charter and of the 

Laws of England 227 

Inconsistent with the avowed Claims of Puritanism 228 



Part III. 

Mode of Conducting the Puritan Missions 234 

Thomas May hew 235 

John Eliot 237 

Results of these Missions 242 

Causes of their Failure 244 

The Puritan Church not entitled to the Credit of their Establishment -249 
The Missions in New England contrasted with those of Virginia ••••251 
With the Jesuit Missions in New France 253 



CHAPTER IV. 

The Elders Conspire against the Crown. 

Part I. 

The Elders and Magistrates feel the Insecurity of Puritanism in Mas- 
sachusetts, in Consequence of its Illegality 261 

Freeman's Oath ^ 262 

The Cross of St. George removed from the English Flag 264 

The Civil Wars 267 

The Long Parliament encourages the Trade of Massachusetts, and 

enlists the Puritan State in its Cause 269 

Massachusetts openly renounces her Allegiance to King Charles 270 

Acknowledges that she is represented in Parliament by the Knights 

and Burgesses of the Manor of East Greenwich 270 

Makes it a capital Offence to side with Charles, and sends Soldiers 

to join the English Rebels •. 272 

Confederates with the other New England Colonies 273 



X CONTENTS. 

Objects sought by this Union 277 

Frustrated by Parliament ; • 279 

Parliament asserts Authority over the Colonies, by attacking their 

Trade. ..•••.••• 280 

Massachusetts ordered to surrender her Charter 280 

Petitions Parliament and Cromwell 280 

Considers herself an Ally of Cromwell only 283 

KlTect of Cromwell's Death 285 

Massachusetts refuses to acknowledge Charles 11. 285 

Reaction in the Colony • • • -286 

The Elders and Magistrates dissatisfied with the Answer of the King- 288 

Part II. 

Declaration of Rights 289 

Charles II. proclaimed 29^ 

Special Mission to England 292 

Agreeable Disappointment of the Agents 293 

Ingratitude of Massachusetts towards the Agents 295 

The two Parties of Prerogative and Freedom 296 

King's Letter disregarded 296 

The General Court secretes the Charter 298 

The Royal Commissioners 299 

The General Court again refuses to accede to the Royal Demands- - • -301 

Again addresses the King 302 

Superstitious Fears of the Colonists 3°3 

The Confederacy broken up by the Commissioners 304 

111 Success of the Commission 3°5 

Objections to the Legality of the Commission answered 314 

Third Royal Letter to Massachusetts 3 '5 

The General Court again disobeys the King 316 

The Policy of Massachusetts during the Wars with France and Hol- 
land • 317 

Rapid Advance of Massachusetts in Wealth and Population 318 

Fourth Royal Letter to the Colony 3^9 

Conflicting Emotions of the Elders 327 

Judgment against the Charter •' 33° 

Death of the King 332 

Effect of the Judgment against the Charter 333 

Part III. 

• 

Fears concerning a Royal Governor 334 

Colonel Kirk 334 

Dudley's Commission 337 

Its Reception by the General Court 338 

Intrigues against the Commission i. 339 

The mild Nature of the Commission and its Government 339 

Colonial System of James II. 341 

Its Merits examined 342 

The Arbitrariness of James compared with the Tyranny under the 

Charter. • • 345 

Arrival of Sir Edmund Andros 346 

Character of his Administration 347 

Restraint upon Marriages • 347 



CONTENTS. XI 

Fees for Quitrents to Crown Lands 34S 

Levying of Taxes 350 

Other arbitrary Acts of Andros 35 i 

Causes of his Unpopularity 352 

The Colonists petition the King 354 

Renewed War with the Eastern Indians 356 

The humane Policy of Andros, frustrated by the Outrages of the 

Charter Government 357 

Andros, kind as a General 358 

The Elders excite Rebellion against him 359 

Political Struggles between the Liberty and Prerogative Parties 361 

Andros acquitted by King William 362 

Conclusion. 363 



CHAPTER V. 

Progress of the Elders from Schism to Sectarianism. 

Part L 

Political Religionism 365 

The New England Puritans, Politico-Religionists 367 

The Charter, not Puritan in its Character 36S 

Antiquity of the Church of England 370 

The Saxon Church 371 

Its Relation to the See of Rome 372 

Its happy Influence 373 

Effect of the Danish Invasions 375 

Fall of the Scaldic Mythology 376 

Condition of the English Church at the Time of the Norman Con- 
quest. 377 

Rise of the Papal Supremacy 378 

The Papal Dominion, a System of Spiritual Feuds 380 

Introduced into England 380 

True Claims of the English Church 382 

Iniquitous Character of English Dissent 383 

Absence of any reasonable Ground for Complaint. . . 384 

Dissent, private Reasoning, in Opposition to Authority 385 

Penal Laws, levelled at Railing, not at Honest Difference of Opinion. .386 

The Conference at Hampton Court 389 

Frustrates the Designs of the Puritans 392 

Absurdity of Puritan Arguments 392 

Ecclesiastical Policy of James 1 393 

Causes of the Increase of Puritanism 395 

It begins to embarrass the Government 396 

Causes the arbitrary Acts of Charles 1 397 

Develops rapidly under Abbot's Protection, during the King's Con- 
tests with Parliam.ent 398 

Growth of Republicanism 399 

Policy of the Royal Government 399 

Part II. 

Motives of the Puritan Emigration 402 

Grief manifested at leaving England 404 

The " Humble Request" from Yarmouth 405 



Xll CONTENTS. 

Ambiguity of the Farewell 408 

Assertion by the Puritans of a Catholic Ministry 409 

Their rapid Assimilation with the Independents 410 

Renounce Catholic Orders as sinful 412 

Growing Enmity to the English Church, aided by Superstition 413 

Promoted by Legislation 415 

Influence of Harvard College 416 

Samuel Maverick 418 

Robert Child 420 

Gross Tyranny of the Magistrates 42 1 

Child and Maverick, with others, petition 422 

Trial of the Petitioners, for Sedition 428 

The Petitioners denounced by the Elders for appealing • . . 429 

Church Feeling In Massachusetts at the Restoration 431 

Alarm of the Elders at the Restoration of the Church 432 

They assert the Divine Right of Puritanism 433 

Refuse to allow the Use of the Common Prayer 434 

Again refuse to allow Churchmen Liberty of Conscience 435 

Randolph opens the Way for the Church 438 

Presses for able and sober Ministers 440 

Obstacles in the Way 440 

Arbitrary Proposals of Randolph 442 

Arrival of Robert Ratcliffe 443 

Formation of the Parish of King's Chapel 444 

Opposition of the Elders 444 

Dltficulties of Randolph 445 

Andros entreats the Elders In Behalf of the Church 446 

Arbitrary Act of Andros 447 

Loyalty of the Church Party 449 



CHAPTER VL 

Some General Reflections on the English Colonial Policy, 
and on the character of puritanism. 

Erroneous Spirit of popular Historians 453 

Rise of the English Colonies 454 

Classes of Colonies 455 

Conflict of Interests between the Crown and Charter Colonies 456 

Commercial Policy of Charles I. 458 

The Ordinance of 1651 459 

Cromwell's Policy 464 

The Navigation Laws of Charles II. 465 

Their Fourfold Object 468 

How received by the Colonics 468 

Character of the restrictive System 470 

Contrast betv\cen Virginia and Massachusetts 477 

How accounted for 478 

Character of Puritanism 484 

Protestantism, the Triumph of Reason over Faith 485 

Puritanism, the Protestantism of England 486 

Eminently superstftious 486 

Unfriendly to Literature 488 

Hostile to Civil and Religious Liberty 489 

Advocates the Indiscriminate Use of the Bible 490 

Which causes its Decline 492 



CHAPTER I. 

CHARTER OF THE MASSACHUSETTS BAY COMPANY, 
AND KING CHARLES THE FIRST. 

Grant of James I. to the Colonial Companies of London and Plymouth — 
Northern Company unsuccessful — Obtains a fresh Grant — Formation 
of a new Company, which likewise fails — Rise of a Missionary 
Spirit — Which leads to a new Organization — Endecott appointed 
Superintendent — The Company obtains a Royal Charter — Cradock, 
the first Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Company — Endecotl 
becomes a Brownlst — Persecutes the Brownes — Transfer of the Char- 
ter proposed — Decided upon — Objects of this Measure — True Char- 
acter and Object of the Charter — The Puritan State charged with 
Disloyalty, and of violating the Rights of the King's Subjects — Sir 
Christopher Gardiner — Thomas Morton — Philip RatclIlT — The 
Council orders an Investigation — Further Complaints against the Puri- 
tan State — Cradock ordered to exhibit the Charter — Appointment of 
a Royal Commission — Which directs its attention to the transfer of 
the Charter — Orders the transmission of the Charter to England — 
The Order not complied with — Vindication of Charles I. 

When King Charles, the Martyr, bestowed a franchise chap. 
upon a company, mercantile in character but missionary -^ — '. — 
in design, he little thought that he was planting the germ 
of Republicanism in the New World. Beholding, x^ith 
the favor of a truly Catholic mind, the project that was 
then forming in the English Church to extend Her bor- 
ders over his dominions in the West, he willingly added 
the weight of his prerogative to an enterprise which, it 
seemed, must draw down a benediction from Heaven. 
Had he foreseen that his gift would be perverted to a 
disloyal purpose, that in a few years the parchment which 



CHARTER OF THE MASSACHUSETTS BAY COMPANY, 

contained merely an act of incorporation would be sold 
into the hands of his enemies, and, borne over the 
ocean into the wilderness, be set up as the constitution 
of an independent state, he would have hesitated ere he 
allowed the great seal of England to stamp it into life. 
But could he have looked further into futurity, and beheld 
the rising England of the New World perpetuating the 
glories of the mother country, protected by the laws of 
the Saxons, the Danes, and the Normans, and enlight- 
ened by the religion which St. Augustine professed, 
doubtless the pious monarch would have furthered the 
schemes of the uneasy Puritans, and rendered their secret 
intrigues unnecessary. 

We, who are in a transition state, can see how good 
is finally to come out of evil. The Church is grasping 
in her embrace the great empire of the West, and her 
garments are unstained by the blood of the aborigines, 
while her reputation is untainted with the guilt of disloy- 
alty. Puritanism has been working for her advantage. 
Fraud, violence, and cunning ; enterprise, daring, and 
self-sacrifice ; the vices and virtues of the Puritan pil- 
grims, have prepared the way for the nobler, the only 
true Christianity. From the bigotry of a few have 
arisen the blessings of the many. The guiding wisdom 
of Omnipotence is now (hscernible beneath the shallow 
surface of human fanaticism. Regeneration, the voice 
that waked the pagan slumbers of the Old World, was 
to be the genius of a new creation here. The painted 
savage was no longer to tread his forests in the simple 
majesty of his nature and strength. His shrill war- 
whoop was to be echoed back by the thunder of cannon, 
and his native cunning was to become powerless before 
the art of civilization. His woods were to be prostrated, 
his game annihilated, and his wigwam deserted ; and he 



AND KING CHARLES THE FIRST. 

himself was to be driven before a power he understood chap. 
not, further and further towards the setting sun, until ' — r^ 
the waves of the Pacific received the last remnants of 
his race, and his existence had become but a name. A 
new day was to dawn upon the West, a day carrying 
witlr it all the blessings of Christianity. There was to 
be there a new heaven and a new earth, and the cross 
of a true faith was to be erected upon every spire, and 
reflected back to the sky by every lake and stream. 

Such is the philosophy taught by the true understand- 
ing of the past. We search in vain for a reason for the 
bloody traces of civilization, unless it can be found here. 
The greatest achievement of art is but a poor equivalent 
for the happiness of a single family of savages, if it 
reaches no further than the external and material world. 
A civilization, crimson with blood and reeking with 
fraud, would be but little worth, if it comprehended 
nothing beyond the creations of steam and the magic of 
the telegraph. 

We propose to make some inquiry into the origin of 
the most energetic colonization the world ever beheld, 
that of Massachusetts Bay. That this subject has been 
curiously distorted alike by doctors of law and history, 
the sequel will show ; and we think that our examination 
of the original authorities will prove that we are indebted 
for the groundwork of this fair New England picture, 
not to the magnanimity of Puritanism, but to the zehl of 
the English Church. Of the historians who have dealt 
with this subject, Grahame and Bancroft occupy the most 
false and partisan attitudes. Grahame, educated in the 
narrow school of the Scottish Kirk, possessed a mind so 
warped by prejudice and so infected with bigotry, that 
his prolix history is false alike in fact and principle. He 
beheld the world through a Calvinistic mist. The most 



< CHARTER OF THE MASSACHUSETTS BAY COMPANY, 

CHAP, depraved exhibitions of Protestantism had attractions for 
— y — him, and, with incredible assurance, he can assert that 
those fanatics, the Brownists, were the most loyal of the 
English people, as well as the most pious, virtuous, and 
courageous.^ He magnifies the virtues of the hardy pil- 
grim, and distorts, with equal complacency, the faults of 
the government towards which the pilgrim displayed not 
disloyalty merely, but rancor and malice. He sneers, in 
execrable taste, at James I., for assuming the style of 
" sacred majesty ; " forgetting the anointed character of 
the princes who then sat upon the throne of England ; 
and, also, that not a successor of John Knox " beats the 
drum ecclesiastic " in his beloved kirk, who does not 
appropriate to himself with scrupulous care the title of 
" reverend." He carps at such " heathenish customs " 
as the drinking of healths, but passes over the atrocious 
crimes of Puritanism with gentle rebukes. He sees 
nothing excellent but in some form of dissent. He 
belongfs to that class of Protestant writers who consider 
worldly prosperity as a sign of heavenly benediction. 
He fully believed in Cromwell's maxim, that the Lord's 
people are to be the head and not the tail, and that any 
means are justifiable to obtain this headship. A malig- 
nant hater of the Stuarts, a bigoted enemy of the church, 
a zealous apologist for the crimes of Puritanism, and, 
with all this, neither an impartial, nor thorough, nor truth- 
ful relator of facts, he was totally unfit for the high office 
he assumed, of teaching the world by examples. He 
wrote not for the world, but for New England ; not for 
the New England of the present, but for that which has 
long since passed away. And he had the bitter mortifi- 
cation of living" to see the America he so much wor- 

^ Vol. i. p. 1 80, 2d edition. 



AND KING CHARLES THE FIRST. 

shipped repudiate his gift, and accept a more genial 
offering from one of her o\vn sons. 

As Grahame sees nothing excellent except in secta- 
rianism, so Bancroft acknowledges nothing to be bad 
unless it emanates from kingly institutions. He hates 
the Stuarts because they used, but more because they 
had, prerogatives. It is not the tyrant merely, but the 
King, which brings out the venom of his pen. Radical- 
ism, pure and unadulterated, that species of radicalism 
which beholds nothing bad in the many, and little that is 
good in the few, seems to be the ruling impulse which 
animates his labors as an historian. To have gained his 
approbation, a king must have undermined his throne, 
and a bishop have broken his crook. The walls of a 
ballot-box are large enough for his philanthropy, and that 
species of liberty which consists in compelling the few 
to submit to the many, hrinr/s down his apotheosis. A 
" press free even to dissoluteness " is one of the merits 
which he claims for an advancing civilization.^ As he 
writes not to let the past speak for itself, but to bend it 
to support his own theories, so he does not scruple to 
identify himself with any party or system, however con- 
tradictory, if he can thereby promote his own. ends. 
With the Quakers, he can ''thee'' and ''thou;" Avith 
the Puritans, he out-Puritans Cromwell ; with the Ana- 
baptists, he can kiss the dust under the feet of Roger 
Williams, with a more superstitious reverence than the 
humble Papist, in a better spirit, bestows on a nail-paring 
of St. Peter ; and, with those noble missionaries who 
bore the white lily and the cross among the terrible war- 
riors of the Five Nations, he can condescendingly become 
a hero and a martyr. These do not contradict his favor- 



^ Vol. li. p. 270. 
1* 



CHARTER OF THE MASSACHUSETTS BAY COMPANY, 

ite philosophy. But, on the other hand, whatever is good 
and holy in the conservatism of the church, and whatever 
adds strength and grandeur to the pyramidal structure of 
civil and social communities, meets from him with untir- 
inof assault. And thus it is with this writer that an 
apostolic faith becomes mouldy tradition ; that a kingly 
government and a loyal obedience are transformed into 
tyranny on the one hand and slavery on the other ; and 
that a gradual scale of social order is distorted into an 
odious antagonism between the few and the many. His 
hatred of loyal old England is the characteristic of his 
work, and he seeks, with unbecoming eagerness, oppor- 
tunities for digression, in order to indulge in his favorite 
theme. So far is he carried away by this hostile spirit, 
that he perpetually violates the rule of the res gestce in 
his descriptions and illustrations, without making any 
allowance for the circumstances of time and place. Thus, 
in describing the Treaty of Utrecht, he refers those of 
its provisions relating to the slave-trade in favor of Eng- 
land, to the promptings of bad hearts and unscrupulous 
avarice, rather than to the faults of the time.' By the 
light of a clearer day, England was the first nation to 
repudiate the system which preyed upon helpless Africa, 
and, as if to show her shame for the past, she has gone 
to the other extreme. This is merely one instance of 
many, and we have not space, in this connection, to go 
more into detail. The candid inquirer, who is unaffected 
by that worst of all cant, the cant of New Englandism, 
will judge for himself, in spite of common-school false- 
hoods and fourth of July hyperboles. He will not allow 
himself to be coaxed or threatened into the support of 
popular errors, even though they should be stamped with 

^ Vol. iii. p. 232. 



AND KING CHARLES THE FIRST. 7 

the counterfeit of truth by judicial decisions ; and, doubt- chap. 
less, his conviction will gain fresh strength, as he pro- ^^ — < — 
ceeds, that the history of the Western Republic is yet to 
be written. In the mean time, let us calmly review the 
character of the enterprise which led to that most impor- 
tant event for Europe and the world, the settlement of 
Massachusetts Bay. 

The discoveries of Cabot had ffiven England a title to Grant of 

P " James I. 

the northeastern coasts of America, and her people were to the Co- 

^ ^ lonial Com- 

in possession of a field which afforded ample room for panies of 

. . .... London 

the most active enterprise. But no individual effort was fi"'^ Piym- 
sufficient to overcome the obstacles in the way of coloni- 
zation, and combination was finally resorted to, as the 
only feasible method. The signal failures of Sir Walter 
Raleigh, in Virginia, seemed to prepare the public mind 
for those .huge monopoly companies which shortly after 
engrossed nearly the whole of British America. King 
James divided all that part of North America between 
S^P and 4<5° of latitude into two grand divisions, the 
southerly of which he bestowed upon a London Com- 
pany, and the northerly upon a company formed in Plym- ifiOG. 
outh and Bristol. The forbidding nature of the soil 
and climate of New England was not at that time known. 
On the contrary, that territory, being within the same 
parallels of latitude which comprise the southerly parts 
of France and the more northerly of Spain, was supposed 
to be as fertile in soil and as mild in climate.^ And this 
natural supposition became highly colored by the accounts 
received from adventurers. The romantic voyage of 
Gosnold, in particular, made under the favorable influence 
of the summer solstice, four years before, raised the 1602. 

^ Gorges, in his Description of of the nearness of the sea, the mount- 
New England, accounts for the cold- ing of whose waves breaks the reflec- 
ness of its climate " partly by reason t'lon of the sunbeams.'''' 



CHARTER OF THE MASSACHUSETTS BAY COMPANY, 



CHAP. 
I. 



Northern 
Company 
but par- 
tially suc- 
cessful. 



expectations of the public, and excited the warmest hopes. 
His discoveries seemed to have revealed a land where 
beauty and plenty struggled for the mastery. As he 
entered Massachusetts Bay, he beheld it " encompassed 
all around, even to the very sea, with sweet-smelling 
woods," and many " monstrous fishes " sporting in its 
waters. Further on, the earth was splendid in its gay 
mantle of green, interwoven with berries and flowers ; 
the woods teemed with " living creatures and wild 
fowl," who fearlessly made their homes in " these ends 
of the earth ; " the air sparkled with the plumage of 
beautiful insects and birds ; while the landscape was 
musical with the distant sounds of running waters, to 
whose medicinal springs the halt and maimed might 
repair, and " leave their crutches upon the adjoining 
trees." Besides, who could tell what mines of precious 
ores lay hid in the bowels of the earth ? ^ 

Such were the visions of the Northern Company, min- 
gled with hopes of the advancement of religion, the 
enlargement of the empire, and the increase of trade, 
when King James, an ardent lover of colonization, with 
royal munificence, bestowed upon them the northerly 
part of his dominions in the New World. Yet the 
attempts made by this company to settle their territory 
were only partially successful. The stern band of Rob- 
inson alone, disgusted with their quiet condition at Ley- 
den, where they suffered the evils of exile without any 
of its glory, founded by singular chance the famous col- 
ony of New Plymouth, in the territory of the Northern 
Company. Even the exiles of Leyden were influenced 
by the prevailing spirit of the times ; and some fancies 



• Hubbard. Ncal. " The coun- those parts ; for here arc many isles 
try ot the Massachusetts," says Cap- all planted with corn, groves, mul- 
tain Smith, " is the paradise of all berries, and salvage gardens." 



AND KING CHARLES THE FIRST. 9 

of suddenly acquired wealth cheered their farewell to chap. 
" dear England," and mingled with their hopes of ~ — '< — 
heaven.' But failures could not discourage the ardent 
love of adventure which actuated all classes of society. 
Ship after ship spread its white wings for the West, 
freighted with ambitious dreams of vast wealth and 
growing empires. The subject assumed a new charm 
when the sea opened to view the great variety of its finny 
inhabitants, equally pleasing to the eye and the palate. 
Hooks and lines were a more simple apparatus than 
charters and monopolies, and were within the reach of 
the poorest subject. The humble treasures of the ocean, 
if not so precious, were, at least, yielded with more 
readiness than the gold and silver of Mexico and Peru ; 
and the wondering eyes of the natives soon beheld the 
promontory of Cape Ann covered with stages, upon 
which were cured the vast numbers of fish that seemed 
to leap from the sea at the command of the English fish- 
ermen. 

Encouraged by this new source of wealth, and jealous Obtains a 
of the violations of their monopoly, the Northern Com- "^ ' ' 
pany resolved to strengthen themselves by obtaining a 
fresh grant from the king. A new patent passed the 
seals, reorganizing the company as the Council for the i62o. 
affairs of New England, the corporate power of which 
was to reside in Plymouth. This " Grand Council of 
Plymouth " was no longer a mere company of mer- 
chants ; it was composed of the great men of the king- 
dom, whose resources it was supposed would enable them 
to overcome readily the obstacles of nature, and whose 

1 Winslow's Brief Narrative, and charter ; and, on being told fishing, 

Morton's Memorial. What profits replied : " So God have my soul, 

do you intend ? asked James of the 'tis an honest trade ; 'twas the aposj 

Pilgrims, when they applied for a tie's own calling." 



10 CHARTER OF THE MASSACHUSETTS BAY COMPANY, 

CHAP, names would be sufficient to inspire trespassers with 
^ — 'f — ' awe. The designs formed by this council were in the 
highest degree magnificent, but were wholly unsuited for 
the wilderness, and they illustrate very forcibly the little 
progress that had then been made in the principles of 
colonization. It is impossible, however, to predict with 
certainty what would have been the result of their under- 
taking ; for their plans were frustrated by Sir Edward 
Coke, at that time Speaker of the House of Commons, 
and champion of " the liberties of the people." The 
aged lawyer, who was opposed to all monopolies, was 
especially hostile to the Council of Plymouth, and had 
sufficient influence to cripple their resources. They ad- 
vanced no further in their plans than to send over Cap- 
tain Robert Gorges, with " a modest and prudent priest,"^ 
who was to superintend the affairs of religion in the 
colony, and aid in protecting the poor natives from the 
wrongs and abuses that were already practised upon 
But again them by adventurers. But although Gorges was created 
a lieutenant-governor, endowed with a principality of 
three hundred square miles, and invested with large 
powers of office, he soon threw up a commission which 
1623. had more of name than substance, and returned home in 
disgust. 
Formation Thwarted so soon in the extensive scheme they had 
company, formcd for the establishment of a royal province in New 
wise fai'is.*^ England, the Grand Council abandoned an undertaking 
which oriofinated in imagination rather than reason. The 
failure of this enterprise must have had a chilling effect 
upon the romance of colonization, but it opened a door 
for schemes of a more humble and practicable nature. 

1 Mr. Morel. Grahamc says that he mean that he was consecrated by 
he had the office of a bishop. Does the " Grand Council ? " 



AND KING CHARLES THE FIRST. 11 

In the same year in which Gorges returned home, some chap. 
merchants in the West of England, who had fished for ^ — r — 
cod and bartered for furs in the region of Massachusetts 
Bay, conceived that a colony might be planted on that 
coast, "to further them in those employments."' Such 
an expectation was not unreasonable. It appeared not 
only feasible, but prudent, to leave the supernumeraries 
of the fishing vessels, when the season was over, at some 
eligible point on the coast, where, until the next season 
commenced, they might barter with the Indians, and, by 
moderate cultivatiort of the soil, produce fresh provisions 
for the ships when they again arrived. A company on 
this basis was readily formed, and a capital of three 
thousand pounds subscribed. But the time had not yet 
arrived for the colonization of Massachusetts Bay, and, 
after repeated disasters, this company shared the fate of 1626. 
its predecessors. 

But now began to arise a new motive for action. The Rise of a 
success of the Jesuit missions in every part of the globe spirit. 
was the subject of general wonder, and remark. The 
disciples of Loyola had penetrated the wilds of America, 
and reached the sources of the Ganges, while the ene- 
mies of Rome were ridiculing holy-water and scoffing at 
relics. A rational fear began to be entertained that the 
pagan world, with its countless inhabitants and vast 
wealth, would soon acknowledge the sway of the Pope, 
while Europe was disputing whether he was the Man of 
Sin, against whom are directed the awful denunciations of 
the Holy Apostle. The reproach conveyed by reflections 
of this nature accompanied the enthusiast in his daily 
walks, and furnished ample topics for discussion in his 
social visits. The honor of the reformed religion ap- 

^ White's Brief Relation. 



raissionarv 



leads to a 
new organ 
ization. 



12 CHARTER OF THE MASSACHUSETTS BAY COMPANY, 

I 'HAP. peared to be at stake, and why could not an effort be 
-^, — ' made to redeem its character ^ ^ 
Which This subject had often been debated at Dorchester, a 

town which, from its maritime spirit, had been the source 
of much commercial adventure to America ; and among 
its most active supporters was John White, a priest of 
the English Church.^ By his zeal, the cause of missions 
was united to hopes of gain, and though a connection so 
unnatural could promise but feeble results, yet funds were 
necessary for a trial of the scheme, and these could only 
be obtained by the inducement of profits. The gallant 
band of " knights, gentlemen, and merchants," which 
embarked in the project, six only in number, procured 
from the Grand Council of Plymouth a grant of terri- 
tory extending from three miles north of the Merrimac 
to three miles south of the Charles rivers, and east and 
west from the Atlantic to the South Sea, for New Eng- 
land was then supposed to be, like the Mother Country, 
an island. Having thus laid a sure foundation for the 
intended work, they " imparted their reasons, by letters 
1G27. and messages, to some in London and the West Coun- 
try." Although the disasters of former companies were 
still fresh in the public mind, yet such was the love of 
adventure then rife in the commercial world, that many 
capitalists offered to subscribe, if proper persons could be 
Eiidecott found " to Undertake the voyage." Inquiries were ac- 
su))crintcn- corduigly made, which led to a negotiation with " Master 
Eiidecott," one of the patentees, a man " well known to 
divers persons of good note," and who " manifested 
much willingness to accept the offers " that were made to 
him. The ready compliance of Endecott was a happy 

' Mather. " General Considera- 2 White, though not an ultra 

tions for the Plantation of New churchman, conformed, says Wood, 

England." Dudley's Letter to the "both before and when Archbishop 

Countess of Lincoln. Laud sat at the stern." 



AND KING CHARLES THE FIRST. 18 

omen. Of moral reputation, and well acquainted with cuav. 
the forms of business, he appeared equally fitted to super- ^-^ — 
intend the cause of missions, and to protect the interests 
of, trade. No further difficulty was experienced in ob- 
taining subscribers to an enterprise which was to raise up 
" a new colony upon an old foundation," and, in the fol- 
lowing summer, Endecott was dispatched to New Eng- 1628. 
land, with a handful of servants, to lay a basis for future 
operations.^ 

But one thing- was wanting; to give completeness and The cmn- 

® . paiiy obtain 

unity to this company with a double aspect. Composed » i'"yai 

•' ^ ^ , , ^ t^ Charter. 

of persons, some of whom had in view the eternal wel- 
fare of the Indians, and others their own temporal gain, 
there was danger of imperfect action and misunderstand- 
ings, in the prosecution of objects so dissimilar. To 
obviate such difficulties, and to quiet their title, which, 
owing to the former grants of the Grand Council, was 
somewhat clouded, they determined to obtain a royal 
charter of incorporation. King Charles, generally unfa- 
vorable to the government of distant colonies by mercan- 
tile companies, was impressed with the novelty of a design 
which comprehended the enlargement of his empire, the 
extension of the Church, and the advancement of the 
national commerce. Puritanism had not yet expressed 
itself as a separate spiritual system, and a successful mis- 
sion would redound to the glory of the Church and the 
honor of the throne. With such generous expectations, 
" a patent was granted, with large encouragements every march. 
way, by his Most Excellent Majesty." ^ 

The appointment of officers, in the first instance, was Cradock 
reserved to the cro^\^l, and Matthew Cradock, who was emor of the 

, , . 1 • 1 • 1 1 Massachu- 

more largely mterested m the enterprise than any other setts Bay 

Company. 

'Chalmers. White's Brief Rela- 2 White's Brief Relation. Hutch- 
tlon. inson. Mather. 



14^ CHARTER OF THE MASSACHUSETTS BAY COMPANY, 

ciHAP. Stockholder, was nominated the first Governor of the Mas- 

I. 
— -^ sachusetts Bay Company. The accounts received from 

Endecott, wliose expedition liad been sent out as an exper- 
iment, were of an encouraging nature. He had planted 
his little colony at the head of a noble harbor, of easy 
access from the sea, and central among the tribes, who 
were expected to resort thither for barter and instruction. 
Measures were at once taken to conduct the affairs of the 
company with vigor. The shares of the stockholders 
were proportioned, and new subscriptions were obtained. 
A reinforcement of planters and laborers was procured, 
and the services of several missionaries were engaged. 
Experts were enlisted who were skilled in minerals, and, 
throughout all the operations of the company, the same 
double aspect of religion and worldliness was curiously 
exhibited,^ Letters of instruction were addressed to En- 
decott, advising him of these proceedings, and urging 
upon him, in singular connection, to promote the com- 
mercial and fishing interests of the company, and to bring 
the Indians to the knowledge of the gospel. From these 
instructions, it appears that they placed little confidence 
in the morals of Endecott's servants, who were much 
addicted to drinking, smoking, and swearing, and whose 
example they feared would have a bad effect upon the 
Indians.^ Thus early was experienced the absurdity of 
carrying on at the same time, and by the same company, 
the sale of gin and the s])reading of the gospel. 

In pursuance of the plans of the company, three hun- 
dred persons, among whom were four missionaries, and 
several gentlemen who were to act as Endecott's council, 
sailed from the Isle of Wight in the month of May, and 
arrived safely at Salem in the latter part of June. But 

' Early Records of the Company. 2 Letters to Endecott. Johnson. 
Prince. 



AND KING CHARLES THE FIRST. 15 

Endecott soon found that his situation was not devoid of chap. 
difficulty. In his dispatches to the company, he loudly ^ — y — ' 
complained of his interloping- countrymen, and of their 
irregular trading- with the Indians. His own authority 
heing insufficient to check such violations of their mo- 
nopoly, he begged the company to take the subject into 
consideration, and to use some speedy means for sup- 
pressing the evil. Alarmed for the security of their 
rights, the stockholders determined to petition the King ,]uiy. 
for a renewal of the royal proclamation of 1622, which 
forbade persons to intrude upon the franchise of the Plym- 
outh Company, and, in the month of November, their 
petition was granted, " with other beneficial clauses." ^ 
To this point we are able to bring the early history of 
the company, without discovering any claim made by its 
members to rights or privileges of a sectarian character. 
But a new source of trouble soon arose. From the 
earliest organization of the company under the charter, 
its mercantile seem to have predominated over its mis- 
sionary interests. Out of a dozen or more meetings of 
the corporation and directors, not more than one or two 
had any reference to religious purposes. The stock- 
holders seemed always more anxious to secure good 
sailors, fishermen, and mechanics, than zealous mission- 
aries ; and, while they sent out the former by hundreds, 
they commissioned but three or four of the latter. Still, 
there were members of the company who kept steadily 
and earnestly in view the chief end of the plantation. 
Diifering in their religious sentiments at a time when 
such ditferences began to invade the family circle, as 
well as the district and parish, when even Abbot, the 
Primate of the Church, was infected with the growing 

^ Hazard. Early Records of the Company. Prince. Hubbard. 



16 CHARTER OF THE MASSACHUSETTS BAY COMPANY, 

distemper, and gave open encouragement to Puritanism, 
unanimity of opinion could hardly have been expected 
among the candidates for the post of missionaries. The 
question of conformity or non-conformity was therefore 
an indifferent one to the company at large, provided 
nothing was done which could give offence to the King, 
and that no opportunities were afforded for " moving 
needless questions." ^ In accordance with these views, 
their ministers. Bright, Higginson, Skelton, and Smith, 
represented all religious classes then of weight or im- 
portance in the kingdom ; but, while Bright was a con- 
formist, and was accepted without hesitation, Smith, who 
was a separatist, was obliged to enter into bonds not to 
disturb the colony or injure the company by " his rigid 
principles." ^ In conformity with this politic course, the 
agreements entered into between the company and the 
missionaries, bound the latter to no forms of worship or 
principles of faith. They were required to minister to 
the savages, and to give religious instruction to the ser- 
vants of the company ; provided this was done, their 
employers would be content. And, as if to put this 
question beyond all cavil, the company, in their letter to 
Endecott, declare, " as for the manner of exercising their 
duties, we leave that to themselves." 
Endecott The emigrants who accompanied the missionaries were 
Rrownist. as Opposite in their views. Some were conformists, 
others non-conformists, others separatists, and others of 
no religion at all. Their motives for emigration were as 
different as their opinions were heterogenous. Of the 
first class, were John and Samuel Browne, who were 
sent over by the company to aid in administering the 
oath of office to Endecott, and to assist in his council. 



' Letter to Endecott. '-^ Hubbard. Hutchinson, &c. 



AND KING CHARLES THE FIRST. 17 

Being gentlemen of fortune, and patentees, • they were chap. 
specially recommended to Endecott, by the company, as ^^ — ^r-- 
persons entitled to " his favor and furtherance." ^ But 
Endecott, in the discharge of his arduous duties, " had 
corresponded with the Brownists at Plymouth, who sat- 
isfied him that they were right." The scurvy had broken 
out in his little colony ; and they supplied him vi^ith a 
doctor, who was not merely skilled in medicine, but was 
also a zealous controversialist. In three months, he not 
only drove the scurvy from Naumkeag, but, with it, ban- 
ished every vestige of the Church.^ Endecott, perhaps 
out of gratitude, fell a ready victim to the wiles of this 
cunning leech. He repudiated, without difficulty, every 
rule of the Church in the formation of his religious 
society, and, modelling himself upon his neighbors at Plym- 
outh, put it to vote whether the missionaries sent over 
by the company should be the spiritual instructors of the 
company's servants.^ Although in his last letters from 
the company he had been particularly reminded " that 
the propagating the gospel was the chief thing they pro- 
fessed above all," yet he and the missionaries, with the 
exception of Bright, who soon withdrew from so unprom- 
ising a field, entirely neglected their duties. The relig- 
ious affairs of the colony fell into the hands of a small 
faction of thirty, who signed a confession of faith drawn 
up by Higginson, in which, though they " covenanted " 
to be faithful towards their children and servants, they 
made only one cold allusion to the Indians.* Thus early 
was the charter of the company robbed of its sacred char- 
acter. 

The Brownes, astonished at these sudden develop- Persecutes 

. the 

ments, and unable to check them, met every Sunday, with Brownes. 

' Letter of Instructions, May, ^ PHnce. ^ Hutchinson. 

1628. Hazard. 4 Neal. Mather. 

2* 



18 CHARTER OF THE MASSACHUSETTS BAY COMPANY, 

CHAP, their friends, to worship according to the venerable form 

] — ■ of the Enghsh Church. But, with the intolerance and 

tyranny characteristic of the sect which he had lately- 
joined, Endecott cited the brothers to appear before him 
to answer to a charge of sedition. The defendants might 
well have declined to notice a summons at once insulting 
and illegal ; but, waiving all considerations of this nature, 
they appeared before the governor, and avowed it as their 
belief that the course he was pursuing had a tendency 
towards the lowest forms of sectarianism. For them- 
selves, they declared their determination to adhere to the 
Church of England. This prediction, which was after- 
wards remarkably fulfilled, had no weight with Endecott, 
who, finding that their resolution was unalterable, and 
making use of the power that was confided to him for 
far different purposes, forcibly seized upon their persons, 
and, notwithstanding the prejudice to their property, sent 
them compulsively to England.^ An outrage so gross 
and palpable, could not pass without notice, although the 
victims found, on their arrival in London, that the com- 
pany had changed its character. They immediately peti- 
1629. tioned for redress, and umpires were chosen, to whom 
ep.em er. ^^ whole affair was referred. But nothing further ap- 
pears to have been done. The charter, as originally 
bestowed by the King, had passed into new hands, and 
great lukewarmness was manifested towards redressing 
wrongs with which its present proprietors could have but 
little sympathy. Indeed, their treatment of these unfor- 
tunate gentlemen was, in the sequel, both wicked and 
contemptible. Fearing lest they should appeal to the 
King, they obtained possession of their private letters, 
and after violating the sacredness of their seals, voted to 

' Mather. Hutchinson. Neal. 



AND KING CHARLES THE FIRST. 19 

keep them to be made use of against the writers, as occa- chap. 
sion should offer.' With this hold upon their actions, • — y — 
they openly treated their complaints as " slanders."^ But 
it seems that they were sensible of the imprudence of 
Endecott's conduct, although their ears were closed to 
the voice of justice. In their letters to the plantation, 
they rebuked the overseer and the ministers for " undi- 
gested counsels too suddenly put in execution." For, 
said they, such proceedings may have "an ill-construction 
with the state, to which we must and will have an obse- 
quious eye."^ 

In the mean time, by a striking coincidence, Endecott's 
conversion to Brownism had been followed by the perver- 
sion of the charter. It was at a meeting of the stock- 
holders, at Mr. Goffe's house, in London, that that July. 
extraordinary proposition was made, which entirely al- 
tered the complexion of their affairs. Several Puritan 
gentlemen, of birth and fortune, alarmed at the suspen- 
sion of Abbot, and at the measures which were adopted 
to suppress that disloyalty to the Church which he had 
been the chief instrument in fostering, determined to 
transport themselves and their families to the New 
World. Virginia was closed to the enemies of the 
Church, and they therefore decided to make application 
to the Massachusetts Company. But aware that such a 
movement, undertaken for such an end, would endanger 
the safety of the charter, they determined to make the 
removal of the corporation an indispensable condition of 
their own emigration. With the charter in their hands, 
three thousand miles away from the Star-Chamber and 
the King's Bench, they would feel comparatively safe. 
On sounding Cradock, the governor of the Company, 

' Early Records of the Company. 2 Letter to Skelton and Higginson, 
3 Early Records of the Company. In Hazard. 



20 CHARTER OF THE MASSACHUSETTS BAY COMPANY, 

CHAP, they were pleased to find that he was not averse to the 
' — ) — scheme, though from a different motive. Such had been 
the complaints of Endecott, concerning the violations of 
the company's monopoly, that it appeared for the best 
interests of the stockholders, that the corporation should 
transfer all its power to the plantation, since its presence 
on the spot would do more to prevent trespasses, than 
royal proclamations or empty threats. Cradock, there- 
fore, assumed the difficult task of rendering this proposal 
palatable to his fellow corporators.^ 
Transferor Assembled at the house of the Deputy Governor for 

the charter . c ^ ' t i'i/-a 

proposed, the transaction of then' ordmary busmess, the General 
Court were astonished to hear from Mr. Cradock a pro- 
posal that the charter and the corporation should be 
removed into another hemisphere. His proposition was 
couched in artful terms. To the speculators, he urged 
this scheme with all the force of one who cared more for 
his speculations than for the law ; and addressing himself 
to those members of the company who were touched with 
the disease of Puritanism, he represented how, " for cer- 
tain weighty reasons," such a movement would redound 
to the interests of true religion. An idea so novel, for 
which there existed no known precedent, excited much 
debate. The chief opposition to the measure came from 
those who were largely interested in the pecuniary suc- 
cess of the company, but who had no desire to leave the 
comforts of civilization, for doubtful prospects in the 
wilderness. Is such a transfer legal \ If so, how are 
the interests of those who do not choose to leave their 
native country to be adjusted \ But small returns have 
been received for the great outlays that have been made ; 

' Chalmers's Annals. Early Rec- scare point of this intrigue, and the 
ords of the Company. Hubbard, only point about which there is any 
Prince, ^c. . This is the most ob- uncertainty. 



AND KING CHARLES THE FIRST. 21 

is the company, after all this expense, to surrender its CHAr. 

mercantile character, in order to become an engine of 

sectarianism ] These embarrassing questions could not 
be disposed of in one session. A committee was there- 
fore chosen to advise with counsel, and to report at the 
next meeting of the Court ; and, in the mean time, mem- 
bers were desired to consider secretly of the proposal, and 
" to take care that the same be not divulged."^ 

Fortunately for the success of the scheme, the counsel Decided 
consulted by the committee was Mr. White, a Puritan 
lawyer, who was a member of the company, and favor- 
able to the wishes of the applicants.^ " Great stress was 
laid upon his opinion ; " and, fortified as it was with the 
influence of Winthrop, Johnson, Dudley, and other distin- 
guished persons, whose names were now for the first time 
divulged, it broke down the weight of opposition.^ In 
the month of August, " after a warm debate," the ques- 
tion was put, whether the corporation should be removed 
to Massachusetts, or, in other words, whether the charter 
of the company should become the constitution of a 
state, and was decided in the affirmative by " a general 
rising of hands." Thus the charter passed into the 
hands of the Puritans. But the decision was not unani- 
mous. Some regret, perhaps, might have been enter- 
tained, that a franchise, royally bestowed for a godly 
purpose, should so speedily be perverted. Perhaps, in 
some solitary breast, a pang of sorrow was felt, that not 
one of those pagans, whose lands they were appropriat- 
ing, whose game they were wasting, and whose simple 



1 Early Records, ^c. Hubbard, displayed. The truth is, that the 
Hutchinson. Prince. parties interested made all this show 

2 Graham says that eminent law- about counsel, in order to dissipate 
yers were consulted, and afterwards the scruples of the timid, 
wonders that such ignorance of the "^ Early Records, i^c. Hutchin- 
principles of law should have been son. 



22 CHARTER OF THE MASSACHUSETTS BAY COMPANY, 

CHAP, fisheries they were destroying, had been taught to chant 
^ — — a Christian paian. 

Such generous emotions, however, if they existed at 
all, were soon drowned in apprehensions of pecuniary 
loss. The minority, doubtful of the operation of the 
October, transfer, or still fearful concerning its legality, proposed 
that the government of the company should wear a 
double aspect ; and that while " the government of per- 
sons " should be established in Massachusetts, " the 
government of trade and merchandises" should be con- 
tinued in England. Great resistance was made to this 
project, and the division was carried to such a length, 
that it was found necessary to obtain the intervention of 
counsel, committees, and umpires. Even Cradock him- 
self appears to have favored this amendment to his prop- 
osition, for he was chosen one of the committee on behalf 
of " the adventurers," to treat with the committee on be- 
half of " the planters," for thus the two parties were 
designated. Finally, after a long and heated negotiation, 
it was agreed that those members of the company who 
remained in England should retain a share in the stock 
and profits, for the term of seven years, and that, at the 
end of that period, the capital of the company, with such 
accumulations as had accrued, should be divided among 
all the stockholders, in proportion to their respective 
interests.^ 

Objects of Such was the inglorious end of a noble franchise. 

ure. The salvation of the red men was made to yield to the 

interests of Puritanism. The new corporators, who 
effected this fraud upon the king and the church, had 
weightier objects in view than the propagation of the 
gospel. Their aspirations soared above the humble hori- 

1 Flarlv Records, &c. White's Brief Relation. Prince. Hutchinson. 



AND KING CHARLES THE FIRST. 23 

zon of the charter ; and they would not discern the mel- chap. 
ancholy truth, that thus to alter its original purpose, — • — ' 
operated in fact to rob the Indians. Nothing obscured 
their mental vision but ceremonies and bishops. The 
hope that brightened the future with them had for its 
basis the abolition of surplices. If they could stand in 
prayer instead of kneeling, if they could do away with 
the sign of the cross, if they could elevate the pulpit 
above the altar, if they could degrade saints' days and 
revive the Jewish sabbath, if they could clothe the min- 
istry in black instead of white robes, what mattered it to 
them how many victims they crushed under the wheels of 
their Puritan Juggernaut 1 

Prejudice and ignorance, ever inseparable, have done True char- 
much to obscure the true character of the charter ; and object oi 
it is a common error to believe that the franchise be- ter. 
stowed by Charles the First upon the Massachusetts Bay 
Company was intended as an immunity to the Puritans ; 
that, from the beginning, the corporation enjoyed the 
same uninterrupted character. To combat this general 
idea is an easy, but may prove an invidious task. It can 
never be grateful to men to learn, that those whom they 
have been accustomed to reverence for a particular action 
are the rather open to censure. And, certainly, unless it 
can be shown that the charter was perverted to purposes 
far different from those intended by the king, the subse- 
quent treatment of the company, by the crown, was cen- 
surable and undeserved. To vindicate the honor of 
Charles on this point, a brief inquiry will suffice ; and it 
will be admitted that the law and facts, agreeing, together 
furnish a conclusive theory. 

The title of Europeans to the New World rested upon 
discovery. This is a principle which all civilized nations 
acknowledge. It derives its force from divine laws, for 



S^ CHARTER OF THE MASSACHUSETTS BAY COMPANY, 

civilization must necessarily have preeminence over Na- 
ture, whenever the two come in contact. It reaches not 
to the pillage of the natives, but gives only such territo- 
rial rio-hts as are not inconsistent with justice and equity. 
If the claims of property are recognized by the abo- 
rigines, it would be gross injustice to interfere therewith. 
If their laws and customs are, in the main, fair and 
equitable, there can be no justifiable plea for intrusion. 
How far interference may be defensible, depends upon 
the circumstances of each case. Vattel justly complains 
of the Spaniards, that they tried the Inca of Peru by the 
laws of Spain ; ^ but had the Peruvians been a people 
living without law or order, the Spaniards would have 
been open to censure, if they had neglected to substitute 
order for chaos. Such is the fostering care that Nature 
claims from Art. 

The title of the aborigines to the soil in America has 
been questioned. Whether, according to the definition of 
property given by Locke, such an occupancy of land was 
maintained by them as barred the claims of Europeans, 
it is not worth while to inquire. But, waiving this view 
of the question, so harsh and inequitable as regards the 
rights of savages, the better opinion seems to be, that 
the relation existing between the aborigines and Euro- 
peans, gave " to the government of the latter, by whose 
subjects or authority the discovery was made, the title to 
the country, and the sole right of acquiring the soil from 
the natives." Consequently, " the nations which estab- 
lished colonies in America assumed the ultimate dominion 
to be in themselves, and claimed the exclusive right to 
grant a title to the soil, subject only to the right of occu- 
pancy in the Indians." ^ This qualified dominion, there- 

' Le Droit dcs Gens, B. ii. ch. 4, ^ 55. ^ Kent's Com. vol. iii. p. 379. 



AND KING CHARLES THE FIRST. "ZD 

fore, over the territory of New England, vested by right chap. 
qf discovery in the Enghsh cro^vn, in trust for the Eng- — > — ' 
lish people ; and the laws of the kingdom, so far as they 
were applicable to the condition of the country, became 
immediately in force.^ Every Englishman who fixed his 
residence there continued to be an English subject, owing 
allegiance to his sovereign, and bound by the laws of the 
realm. And the obligation was reciprocal. The oath of 
coronation bound the sovereign equally in every part of 
his dominions. He could not grant rights in America 
forbidden by the laws he was sworn to execute, nor could 
he establish political and religious systems inconsistent 
with those erected by parliament. The oath so forcibly 
expressed in the ancient formula, " que il gardera et 
meintenera le^ droitez et lez franchisee de seynt esglise^'' 
would never permit such an use of his prerogative as 
might endanger her best interests. Holding all discov- 
ered countries as trustee for the benefit of his people, he 
would commit a fraud upon them, did he carve out val- 
uable rights therefrom and bestow them upon a small 
sect, whose avowed principles were hostile to the laws of 
the land. His custody of national property extended not 
to absolute ownership. He could only grant those rights 
and privileges, which flowed from him as the fountain of 
honor and justice. And, if his object had been to set up 
in his dominions a franchise unknown to the law, he must 
have had recourse to parliament ; for in parliament alone 
rested supreme power.^ 

Those writers, therefore, who argue that the charter 
was expressly intended as an immunity to the Puritans, 
are supported neither by law nor fact. They can show 
no power in the king to offer such a premium to dissent, 

' Salk. 411, 666. 2 P. Wms. 75. Blackstone's Com. vol. i. p. 107. 
16 Pick. Rep. p. 115. ^ I Kyd, 61. Cro. Car. 73, 87. 



i^6 CHARTER OF THE MASSACHUSETTS BAY COMPANY, 

CHAP, nor were the subsequent acts of the grantees consistent 
•^--^-^ with such a tlieory. They did not emigrate with their 
wives and cliildren, nor did they pubhsh to the world a 
declaration which would have been read with wonder, 
and perhaps with admiration. On the contrary, all their 
religious enthusiasm was solely directed into the channel 
of propagation ; and when the overtures of the Puritans 
were made for the purchase of the charter, they met 
them with caution and secrecy. 

The argument is made complete and triumphant by an 
examination of the charter itself; and in a question so 
important, on the correct decision of which depends our 
capacity to judge of future events, a brief inquiry into 
the nature of this famous franchise will be pardoned. 
Was the charter of Massachusetts Bay the organization 
of a mercantile company, or the constitution of a Puritan 
State ? There are five characteristics which distinguish 
corporations from all other legal bodies. First, they are 
perpetuities, have perpetual succession, and, of course, 
power, express or implied, of electing new members. 
Secondly, they may sue and be sued, grant and receive 
by their corporate names, and, in general, do all such 
acts as may be done by natural persons. Thirdly, they 
may purchase and hold lands for the benefit of them- 
selves and their successors. Fourthly, they must have a 
corporate seal. Fifthly, they may make by-laws, or pri- 
vate statutes, for the management of their afiairs, provided 
these be not contrary to the laws of the land, for then 
they are void. These are the chstinguishing features of 
corporations, and their powers are granted " for the 
advancement of religion, of learning, and of commerce." ^ 
Their property is subject to taxation, unless specially 

' Blackstone's Com. vol. i. p. 467 . 



AND KING CHARLES THE FIRST. S7 

exempted, and their members are not discharged from chap. 
their allegiance or loyalty. Their charters give them, on ^ — < — ' 
certain conditions, anomalous powers and rights ; but 
they do not remove one duty that they owe, in their cor- 
porate or individual capacities, to their fellow-subjects, to 
the king, or to God. 

The application of these principles to the charter of 
the Massachusetts Bay Company will afford a sure key 
to its character. We find in that instrument no grants 
of powers sufficient for the establishment of a State ; no 
authority to levy taxes, without which a government 
would be lifeless ; no authority to assemble the represen- 
tatives of the people, without which it would be impo- 
tent ; no authority to erect courts of judicature, without 
which it would be lawless. In short, neither in the 
executive, legislative, nor judicial branch of government, 
is one power granted, one right yielded, or one office 
created, sufficient for political purposes. But, in its true 
design, as an act of incorporation simply, the charter is 
admirable and complete. It did not operate to create a 
provincial government, but it organized a mercantile 
company, conferring upon the stockholders the right to 
plant a colony. It granted all the powers which were 
necessary for the successful pursuit of commercial busi- 
ness. It confirmed the sale, made by the Grand Council 
of Plymouth, of lands, waters, ports, havens, fisheries, 
mines, minerals, and precious stones ; reserving, how- 
ever, to all English subjects, the right of exercising " the 
trade of fishing " upon the coast, and the necessary ease- 
ments connected therewith. It granted even the royal 
mines of gold and silver, which were supposed to lie 
" hid in the bowels of the earth," reserving only to the 
crown one fifth part of the ore which might be obtained. 
It gave to the company a corporate name, under which 



28 CHARTER OF THE MASSACHUSETTS BAY COMPANY, 

to have perpetual succession, and by which to plead, 
prosecute, and answer all suits, quarrels, and actions, of 
what kind and nature soever. It gave to the company a 
common seal, " to be used in all their causes and occa- 
sions," and full authority to break and alter the same. 
It settled the nature of the government of the company ; 
providing therefor a governor, deputy governor, and a 
board of eighteen assistants or directors, any seven of 
whom, with the governor or his deputy, were to be a 
quorum, whose frequent meetings might tend to the 
better management of the company's business. It pro- 
vided for four annual assemblies of all the members, or 
freemen of the company ; who, so assembled with the 
governor and assistants, were to constitute " great and 
general Courts." It granted to these courts the power of 
admitting new members to the franchise, of commission- 
ing such officers as should be found necessary for the 
management of their business, and of making such regu- 
lations for the benefit of their plantation, as should not be 
repugnant to the laws and statutes of England. Lastly, 
it provided that oaths of office should be taken by the 
governor, deputy, and assistants, for the due and faithful 
performance of their several duties. 

Having thus organized the company, the charter pro- 
ceeds to mention more particularly the objects contem- 
plated by the corporators, and some peculiar privileges 
which the king, " of his especial grace," bestowed upon 
them. It was made lawful for the company to convey to 
their plantation in New England any loyal subjects, who 
were willing to proceed there, together with such foreign- 
ers as would live in allegiance to the English crown. 
They were further authorized to transport shipping, ar- 
mor, ammunition, provisions, cattle, merchandise, and all 
other things necessary for the well being of the planta- 



AND KING CHARLES THE FIRST. ^9 

tion, the defence of its inhabitants, and their trade with chav 
the natives^ And, for " the further encourag-ement " of ^ — ^ — 
the company, the charter remitted all taxes upon their 
property in New England for seven years, and also upon 
any merchandise exported or imported thence, to and 
from England, for twenty-one years, reserving only the 
usual five per cent, custom upon such merchandise, due 
according to " the ancient trade of merchants." ^ It 
secured to the loyal servants of the company, who 
should inhabit the plantation, and to their children born 
there, the liberties and immunities of English subjects, to 
as full an extent as if they were resident at home ; and 
to the better attainment of this end, provided that the 
oaths of supremacy and allegiance should be administered 
by the governor and any two of the assistants, to all per- 
sons who should at any time proceed to the plantation. 
For the peaceable and religious government of the col- 
ony, in the hope that the example of its inhabitants might 
win the natives of the country to the knowledge and 
obedience of the only true God, which, " in our royal 
intention and the adventurer s free profession, is the prin- 
cipal end of this plantation" the charter granted full 
authority to the company in England to establish a 
magistracy for their planters and servants, to make rules 
and ordinances, and to impose " fines, mulcts, and impris- 
onments, or other lawful corrections, according to the 
course of other corporations" in the realm. Finally, for 
" the special defence and safety " of the colony, it granted 
to those officers of the company, who were employed to 

• These two privileges were, in sons, viz : because he allowed his 
general, controllable by royal proc- subject to depart the realm, and 
lamation, and the charter operated carry his goods with him ; and be- 
as a license under the great seal. cause the king is bound to maintain 

2 This was an ancient revenue all ports and havens, and to protect 

belonging to the king, for two rea- the merchant from pirates. 
3* 



CHARTER OF THE MASSACHUSETTS BAY COMPANY, 

manage their affairs in New England, full authority to 
resist, by force of arms, all military invasions, or other 
attempts made against the safety of the plantation and its 
inhabitants. 

Such was the charter of the Massachusetts Bay Com- 
pany. As a legal instrument, its symmetry was per- 
fect, its details minute, its scope expansive and free. 
Nothing appears wanting for the successful prosecution 
of missionary effort or mercantile adventure. But viewed 
as a political constitution, it becomes at once confused 
and objectless. The distinction between the company 
and the plantation is destroyed, and the relation of each 
to the other must be a source of endless speculation. 
What are the powers of the executive ] Where is the 
legislature, and where the judiciary "? How is the gov- 
ernment to be supported 1 For the property of all cor- 
porations is liable to taxation by parliament, and by-laws 
levying money on the subject, by a corporation, are 
void.^ Merge the company in a people, and how can the 
latter assemble four times in each year ] Erect the board 
of directors into a council of state, and what limits their 
power, or defines their relation to the king? It will 
hereafter appear how awkwardly the charter fitted the 
purposes of government when the transfer was made ; 
how taxes were levied by the assistants, against the con- 
sent of the freemen ; how the assistants, irresponsible, 
usurped all the powers of government, so that their 
tyranny led the people to clamor for a magna charta ; 
how the corporate seal was entirely cast aside ; how the 
quarter-yearly meetings of the company were disused, as 
impossible customs ; and how the General Court was 



• Case of i^/o iriinanto, Treby's Aig. 29 ; Sawyer's Arg. 42 ; Player 
V. Fere, T. Ray. 328. 



AND KING CHARLES THE FIRST. 31 

consequently resolved into a representative and parliamen- chap. 
tary body. ^^.^-^-^ 

The legal character of corporations being ascertained, 
a rule of law applies, which restrains any abuse of their 
privileges. Corporations can have no other rights than 
such as are "specifically granted." Being mere creatures 
of law, established for special purposes, their powers 
must be confined to the operations prescribed by their 
charters. And the Puritan pilgrim had no sooner estab- 
lished his system in Massachusetts, than it became neces- 
sary for him to set up some defence for an act which was 
" in contempt of the laws of England." Thrusting aside 
the two oaths of supremacy and allegiance, for the admin- 
istration of which the charter expressly provided, he 
assumed that the true construction of that instrument 
gave him liberty to regulate his ecclesiastical affairs 
according to the dictates of his own conscience.^ Not- 
withstanding penal laws were in force at this very time 
against the insane fanaticism which threatened both 
church and state, and soon accomplished their overthrow, 
it was insisted that the king had given a portion of his 
subjects liberty to set up in his dominions a religion 
utterly opposed to the national church, to himself as tliQ 
head of the church, and which was soon to prove un- 
friendly to the monarchy itself. But however inconsist- 
ent such a construction of the charter was both with law 
and fact, it was equally opposed to common sense. For 
it is unreasonable to suppose that the king, knowing the 
applicants for this franchise to be Puritans, a sect prover- 
bial for its turbulence and disloyalty, not only gave them 
a charter, but bestowed upon them special marks of his 
favor. It is insulting to common sense to assert that 

J Cotton's Bloody Tenent. Mather. Neal, &c. 



32 CHARTER OF THE MASSACHUSETTS BAY COMPANY, 

Charles intended to encourage a plantation by the remis- 
sion of its taxes, the avowed object of which was the 
establishment of a religion that, since the days of Queen 
Mary, had been striving for the overthrow of the church 
he so dearly loved and venerated. 

Weak and untenable indeed are all such arguments. 
They will not bear the most superficial examination. In 
fact, Grahame, the modern champion of Puritanism, has 
unwillingly abandoned these ancient strongholds of the 
New England fathers, venerable from their age and asso- 
ciations. He wanders into the law, in search of some 
technicality which may aid an unsound theory, and drags 
up a maxim, in its legal acceptation equally the dictate of 
common sense and equity, which declares, that in cases 
where the import of a contract is doubtful, it shall be 
construed most strongly against the party from which it 
proceeds.^ The application of this maxim cannot help 
his cause. Though " drawn out of the depth of reason," 
it will be found that a critical inquiry into its meaning 
will limit its application to cases of "ambiguity of words," 
or where such an exposition is necessary " to give them 
lawful effect."^ Is there any " ambiguity of words" in 
tlie charter of the Massachusetts Bay Company ^ Was 
the establishment of Puritanism necessary for missionary 
effort among the Indians, or for the successful prosecution 
of trade and commerce "? 

We might, were it necessary, pursue this discussion 
still further. We might show how such a mode of con- 
struction can seldom be resorted to in contracts where the 
king is a party. We might ask under what denomina- 
tion this anomalous corporation must be classified, and in 



1 Verba atnhigua fortius accip'iun- 2 Kent's Com. vol. ii. p. 556. 
tur contra proferentem. Bacon's Chitty on Cent. p. 21. 
Maxims of the Law, No. 3. 



AND KING CHARLES THE FIRST. . 8 

what manner it was to be visited. Since .there are only chap. 
three classes of corporations aggregate known to the * — -.-^ 
common law, ecclesiastical, eleemosynary, and civil ; since 
the first of these must be composed of spiritual persons, 
of whom a bishop is visitor ; since the second are insti- 
tuted upon principles of charity, such as hospitals and 
colleges ; and since the last are created for civil purposes 
only ; where is this monstrous phantasma of Puritanism 
to find either place or fellowship 1 

As a question of law, then, the charter can have no 
such construction as the Puritan pilgrim contended for. 
It stands upon the same ground as do all other instru- 
ments of a similar nature. It supposes the corporators 
to be good and loyal subjects, whose desires are bounded 
by the acquisition of wealth, and by the moral improve- 
ment of the heathen, for whose benefit it was chiefly 
designed. It implies, that "the true Christian religion of 
the realm shall not suffer any prejudice for want of cer- 
tain expression." ^ It assumes, that the men who thus 
receive at their sovereign's hands such signal marks of 
favor can have no intent to abuse his kindness. It takes 
for granted that those " loving subjects," which are sur- 
rendered to the management of the company, will be 
confirmed in their allegiance, and not taught principles 
destructive of all honor and loyalty. Finally, it expects, 
that in the wilderness thus to be peopled with English- 
men, the true English heart will expand ; and that, should 
clouds and darkness gather about the throne and church, 
a steady and cheering light from New England will beam 
across the Atlantic, with healing on its wings. 

It was in the face of such generous hopes, and con- 

1 In the royal grant of Maine to intent of the king, and his sense of 
Gorges, in 1639, these remarkable the doings of the Puritans of Mas- 
words are used, showing the real sachusetts. 



34< CHARTER OF THE MASSACHUSETTS BAY COMPANY, 

trary to all law and authority, that the missionary charter 
of Massachusetts Bay was converted into a political con- 
stitution. Had the corporation remained in England, the 
visitatorial power possessed hy the King's Bench would 
have easily remedied any perversions of its franchise. 
But, as we have seen, the infusion of Puritanism into 
the company was followed by a vote to transfer the char- 
ter. Puritan lawyers were readily found, who sanctioned 
the legality of the proceeding; and an act, which was 
begun in secrecy and doubt, was consummated in unhesi- 
tating violation of the law. "The whole structure of 
the charter presupposes the residence of the company in 
England, and the transaction of all its business there," 
said a late distinguished jurist, and he but echoed the 
truths of history.^ Would it not have staggered the 
purpose of the Puritan pilgrims, if they could have fore- 
seen that, among all their descendants, no jurist, histo- 
rian, or moralist, would be found to justify — we wish 
we could say applaud — this, their greatest exploit 1 
The I'uri- The cautiou, which marked every step in this transac- 

tan State . . , . „ . ^ 

charged tiou, savcd the aspnung emigrants from niterference. 
loyalty, Thcv Tcfuscd, wliilc in England, to separate from the 

and of vi- • i i i i i • i 

oiating the national church : and, when thev left its shores forever, 

rights of . "^ „ 

the king's thcv bequeathed to " their dear Mother " an address, so 

subjects. . 

pathetic and humble, so modest and gentle, that it is diffi- 
cult to believe they were the same unhappy children, who 
afterwards "loathed the milk they had sucked from her 
breasts." We have not space here to consider whether 
this famous address to the " Reverend Fathers " of the 
Church was a purely hypocritical offering, dictated by 

1 Story's Comment, on Const, of from the office of governor of Mas- 

U. S. vol. i. § 67. See Kent's Com. sachusetts, \\as of the same opinion. 

ii. p. 36, n. Bancroft thinks that Vol. i. pp. 353, 384. 
Henry Vane, who ousted Winthrop 



AND KING CHARLES THE FIRST. 35 

policy, or a sincere tribute to the Catholic Faith, forcibly chap. 
extorted from them by the influence of the home and -^^' — 
country they were abandoning. We must hurry on to 
the events which followed the transfer of the charter, and 
ascertain whether Charles, whose bounty had been so 
singularly perverted, suffered the company to proceed in 
its own way in Massachusetts, and beheld unmoved the 
establishment of a Puritan state on the ruins of a noble 
church mission. Eighteen months passed away from the 
departure of Winthrop's fleet, before his attention was 
specially called to New England. During this period, 
he was too much engaged with abuses of greater mo- 
ment, which were slowly creeping around the footstool of 
the throne itself, to give heed to the transatlantic doings 
of a small company of malcontents, who departed with 
all the stealth of guilt from the kingdom, bearing with 
them a franchise which belonged to the Church. But this 
negligence, if it were so, was soon rebuked. Three vic- 
tims of New England tyranny, — Sir Christopher Gar- 
diner, Thomas Morton, and Philip Ratcliff, — all bearing 
marks of personal outrage and indignity, suddenly pre- 
sented themselves before him as supplicants. Without 1632. 
manifesting any signs of guilt, or fear of the conse- 
quences, they boldly charged the Puritan State with want 
of allegiance to the king, and with violating the rights of 
the subject. Their stories are briefly told. Gardiner sir ciu-is- 
had been a great traveller, and claimed to be a knight of diner. 
the Holy Sepulchre. His adventures seem to have unfit- 
ted him for the quiet pleasures of domestic life, and the 
wilderness had more charms for him than the city. But 
though he had wandered as far as the remote corners of 
the Turkish empire, probably the most unpleasant event 
of his life occurred not many miles from Boston. In 
1630, he was sent to New England by Sir Ferdinando 



36 



CHARTER OF THE MASSACHUSETTS BAY COMPANY, 



CHAP. Gorges, to protect the interests of his patron from any 
■^ — y — ' intrusion by the Massachusetts Bay Company ; but, mak- 
ing use of the questionable finesse often employed in 
more important diplomacy, he gave out that he forsook 
the world, in order to lead a godly life. Unhappily for 
his safety, he claimed descent from that Bishop of Win- 
chester, who " was so great a persecutor of good Prot- 
estants ; " and, perhaps more unhappily for his reputa- 
tion, his household was graced by " a comely young 
woman," whom he called his cousin, but who was sus- 
pected to be, " after the Italian manner," his concubine. 

Whether this suspicion was real or pretended, it is 
difficult to say. It was enough that he was considered a 
disguised papist, to make him an object of dislike, and 
all his advances towards friendly intercourse were conse- 
quently repelled. He manifested no unwillingness " to 
take any pains for his living ; " and offered, on many 
occasions, to become " a member of the church." ^ But 
his sincerity was distrusted, and his offers were declined. 
Finally, the suspicion in which he was held increased to 
such an extent that his safety was endangered, and he 
fled from Massachusetts, and placed himself under the 
protection of a party of Indians near Plymouth. The 
fellowship, which was denied him by his countrymen, 
he found among the savages, who steadfastly resisted all 
attempts of the Puritan government to secure his person. 
But the assistance of Plymouth having been obtained, an 
older experience in the savage heart enabled the governor 
of that colony to suggest an expedient, which proved 
successful. Temptation, to the man of untutored pas- 
sions, is almost identical with ruin. A reward was 
offered for the capture of Gardiner, and the Indians 

' Hubbard. Winthrop's Journal. 



AND KING CHARLES THE FIRST. 37 

yielded to bribery what they had denied to menace, chap. 
Shall we kill our guest ^ asked the corrupted savages. — v — - 
By no means, said the Plymouth governor ; bring him 
to us alive, if you would secure your reward. But, 
returned they, t/ie 3fassachusetts Indians saf/, that toe 
may Jcill him. No, was the reply of the humane Brad- 
ford, watch your opportunity, and take him alive. When 
the astonished knight saw that his late friends had be- 
come transformed into unrelenting enemies, he endeav- 
ored to escape. But accidentally losing his canoe, his 
musket, and his sword, he had nothing to keep them at 
bay but a small dagger, which they soon beat out of his 
hands, so that " he was glad to yield." The treatment 
he had received was so rough, that " his hands and arms 
were swelled very sore." He was carried, an unresisting 
captive, to Plymouth, and soon found his way to a prison 
in Boston. His papers were confiscated, and his private 
letters opened ; and it did not cause an amelioration in 
his usage, that " a little private note-book," which, by 
some accident, slipped out of his pocket, contained the 
day on which he was reconciled to the pope, and the uni- 
versity in which he " took his scapula and degree." It 
was soon ascertained in what relation he stood towards 
Gorges, A^'hich afforded an excuse for sending him a pris- 
oner to England. 

But the afflictions of Gardiner were mild, compared Thomas 
with those suffered by Thomas Morton. This man, an 
attorney of Clifford's Inn, arrived in New England in 
162,2, and was subsequently concerned in the company 
that endeavored to establish a trading-post at Mount 
Wollaston, in 1625, so named in honor of Captain Wol- 
laston, who was at the head of the enterprise. Finding 
that the project was unsuccessful, this gallant captain 
began to draft off his servants to Virginia, where, to use 

4 



38 CHARTER OF THE MASSACHUSETTS BAY COMPANY, 

CHAP, liis own words, lie " could turn tliem to better account," 

I. ' ^ ... 

w^ — by selling tbem as slaves.^ Against such sordid villainy, 

Morton, a partner in the concern, protested, and excited 
the men to revolt ; who, having turned adrift the officer 
appointed to carry out the nefarious scheme of their 
patron, abandoned themselves, in the true revolutionary 
spirit, to wanton excesses. They named their fortress 
Merry Mount, and revelled, unrestrained, in the spirituous 
liquors which a corrupt civilization had designed for the 
weaker heads of the Indians. They taught the savages 
the use of fire-arms, contrary to an obsolete proclamation 
of King James, in order to avoid the trouble of provid- 
ing their own food ; and they capped the climax of their 
enormities, when they erected a May-Pole on " Merry 
Mount," around which to dance and sing. All these 
scandals were beheld with pious horror from the neigh- 
boring Plymouth Rock, and by the zealots at Naumkeag. 
Endecott, the director of a colony, whose general moral- 
ity, to say the least, was questionable, visited " this school 
of profaneness," in 1628, cut down the May-Pole, and 
changed its name to Mount Dagon. But Morton, un- 
awed by this trespass, continued an establishment, which 
he doubtless found profitable as a trucking-post. The 
combination of all the plantations, shortly after, to effect 
his ruin, was equally futile. Plymouth, w^hich had the 
chief part in the alliance, existed only by sufferance, as 
he probably knew ; and he was enough of a lawyer, also, 
to know, that even had he been within its imaginary 
jurisdiction, he was not amenable for trucking fire-arms 
with the Indians ; since the proclamations of the late 
king, not declarative of any law^, died with him. He 

1 Neal. Bradford. Hubbard, &c. Blackwood's Magazine, vol. xxvi. 
This species of kidnapping was not p. 607. 
uncommon in those days. See 



AND KING CHARLES THE FIRST. 39 

therefore despised its menaces, resisted the formidable chap. 
Standish, vi et armis, and, when sent a captive to Eng- ^ — v-^^ 
land, returned again the next year, not only unpunished 
but unrebuked. But the arrival of Winthrop's fleet 
brought a more powerful and less scrupulous enemy. 
Having been detected in the act of taking a canoe from 
a party of Indians, he was arrested by order of the court 
of assistants, " set in the bilbowes," and afterwards con- 
fined until he could be again sent a prisoner to England. 
In the mean time, his property was confiscated, to dis- 
charge his debts and the expense of his passage, and his 
house was burnt to the ground, " to satisfy the Indians 
for the wrongs he had done them." ^ Such was the 
retribution paid by Morton, for unjustly taking a canoe. 
Had the wrongs inflicted by the Puritan State upon the 
Indians been weighed in the same balance, where could it 
have found gold and silver sufficient to satisfy the claims 
of justice ? 

Neither Gardiner nor Morton were in any way con- Phiiip 
nected with the Company of Massachusetts Bay. They 
were free English subjects, amenable only to English 
courts of justice. The injuries, therefore, that they suf- 
fered in their persons and property, were the fruits of 
unlawful tyranny. But with Philip Ratcliff" the case was 
different. He was a servant of Cradock, the former 
governor of the company, and was convicted of uttering i63i. 
" scandalous invectives " against the government, and 
" the church " in Salem. Of the nature of these " in- 
vectives," we are ignorant ; but as his chief offence 
consisted, according to Morton, his fellow-sufferer, in 
demanding payment of his Avages while sick, we may 

^ Prince. Winthrop's Journal. England Brethren," told in Butler's 
Hubbard. Morton was the author Hudibras. See Sav. Wlnthrop, vol. 
of the ludicrous story of the " New i. p. 34, n. 3. 



40 



CHARTER OF THE MASSACHUSETTS BAY COMPANY, 



CHAP. 
I. 



The coun- 
cil orders 
an inves- 
tigation. 



1632. 
January. 



suppose that, in the suffering caused by disappointment, 
he inveio^hed against a company, which had undertaken 
to build without first counting the cost. Perhaps lie was 
a humble follower in the path already trodden by the 
Brownes. But, however this may be, the punishment 
inflicted upon him by the court of assistants was utterly 
disproportioned to his offence, and probably made him 
insane, since he was afterwards called a " lunatic." ^ To 
impose upon a poor man, already in want, a fine of forty 
pounds, to whip him, to cut off" his ears, and then to 
banish him from the limits of civilization into a wilder- 
ness ; all these were surely exhibiting the worst phase 
of a Star-Chamber Court, since they were the exercise of 
the grossest tyranny, without even the color of justice. 

Such were the men, whom a short voyage changed 
from malefactors into the victims of malefaction. Much 
indignation was expressed at the outrages which they had 
suffered ; and, as they mingled their complaints against 
the company with charges of " separation from the 
church and laws of England," an order in council issued, 
directing an investigation. But the complainants were 
not sustained. The principal stockholders of the original 
company, who still resided in England, having 'been sum- 
moned before a committee of the council, it was argued 
by them, that the charges preferred against the corpora- 
tion could only be proved by witnesses from the jdanta- 
tion ; that they were on the point of despatching pro- 
visions and merchandise thither, and should suffer great 
loss if these voyages were delayed to wait the issue of a 
prolonged investigation ; and that the faults of the direc- 
tors, " if there were any," ought not to be charged upon 
the members of the company, but should be reserved for 



1 Letter of pAlward Howes to J. Winthrop, Jr. Sav. Winthrop, i. p. 56, n. 



AND- KING CHARLES THE FIRST. 41 

future inquiry. This defence, artful, because it insinuated chap. 
the residence of the company in England ; dishonest, ^-^-.^ — ' 
because the voyages they were planning to Massachusetts 
had partly for their object the transportation of " three 
famous non-conformist ministers," John Cotton, Thomas 
Hooker, and Samuel Stone, blinded the eyes of the com- 
mittee. A favorable report was made ; and the lords in 
council thereupon declared that the company should not 
be held responsible for the acts of '•' imrticidar men^' 
which, " in due time, were to be further inquired into." 
And the defendants were assured that they " might go 
cheerfully on with their present undertakings, and, if 
things were carried as was p'etended when the patenis 
tvcre granted^ his majesty would maintain the liberties 
and privileges of the company." ' 

But suspicions were now awakened, that could not be Fuither 

I'll! complaints 

wholly allayed. The attention of the kmg, which had aoain>t the 
been hitherto absorbed by affairs of a nearer interest, state, da- 

'' T AT '^OQ.'k order- 

was now divided by the sorcery that was peopling JNew ed to exiu- 

England. Complaints poured upon him, thick and fast ; charter. 
and the frequent emigration of persons " known to be ill- 
affected " towards the civil and ecclesiastical establish- 
ments of the kingdom, was vouched in as corroboratory 
evidence.^ A year had scarcely elapsed from the first 
order in council, when a second order issued, requiring ig33. 
the stay of all ships about to proceed to Massachusetts, ' ^' ^' ' ' 
the production of all their passenger lists, and directing 
Cradock, the first governor of the company, to exhibit 
the royal charter.^ Hitherto, the removal of the corpora- 
tion had been unnoticed, and this command to produce 
the patent filled the agents of the company with dismay. 

1 Winthrop's Journ. Neal. Haz- 2 Winthrop's Journ. Neal. Hub- 
ard, &c. bard, &c. 

3 See Hazard, vol. i. p. 341. 
4 * 



4f^ CHARTER OF THE MASSACHUSETTS BAY COMPANY, 

The discomfiture of transatlantic Puritanism and the ruin 
of the colony, appeared alike inevitable. Fortunately for 
both, the charges made were so exaggerated by prejudice 
and enmity, that they could not be proved. The com- 
pany was not simply accused of resolving its charter into 
a constitution, but of open rebellion and want of alle- 
giance. The accusation was not that the franchise had 
been perverted from its true missionary purpose, but that, 
under its protection, an utter separation from the English 
Church had been violently effected. Such charges, which 
only served to disguise the real mischief, were easily dis- 
proved ; for the Puritan State had not yet lost all sense 
of loyalty in the selfish gratification of independence. 
Her agents could point the king to the letter from The 
Arabella, wherein the departing pilgrims prayed for the 
prosperity of their " dear Mother," the Church of Eng- 
land, and promised to " enlarge her boundaries in the 
Kingdom of Jesus Christ." They could easily demonstrate 
the absurdity of rebellion on the part of a band of emi- 
grants, without resources, and in a wilderness surrounded 
by savages and wild beasts. To produce the charter was 
indeed impossible, since it was three thousand miles 
away ; but even this difficulty was smoothed over by a 
promise to transmit the order forthwith to Massachusetts. 
These arguments, united with a plausible suggestion, that 
to encourage the plantation " would be very beneficial to 
England," since it was a country rich in natural })ro(luc- 
tions, and afforded masts, cordage, and naval stores,^ 
gained the Puritan State another victory, and emigration 
thither was suffered to continue, though narrowly watched. 
The king even expressed anger at charges Avhich seemed 
to dwindle, on investigation, into calumnies ; and he 

1 Winthrop's Letter to Bradford, Prince, vol. ii. 89-91. Winthrop's 
Journal. Hubbard, &c. 



AND KING CHARLES THE FIRST. 43 

threatened to punish those persons wlio thus " abused chap. 
his governor and plantation." But the cahn was mo- ' — ^-^ 
mentary, and simply caused by revulsion of feeling. The 
best friends of the Puritan State felt that it was tottering 
upon the brink of a precipice, and they privately inti- 
mated to the ruling oligarchy, that it would be unsafe to 
attract notice by neglecting the prayers for the king, or 
differing widely from the ritual of the Church of Eng- 
land.i 

One incident grew out of these proceedings, of a pecu- 
liar nature. It is related by Puritan writers, that some 
members of the council assured the defendants, on their 
dismissal, that "-his majesty did not intend to impose 
u])on them the ceremonies of the Church of England ; 
for it was considered that it was the freedom from such 
things that made people come over to them."^ On this 
assertion, so totally irreconcilable with the order in coun- 
cil, the strongest arguments in fa^'or of New England 
Puritanism have been founded. But it is obvious that 
the position cannot be maintained. For the singular 
inconsistency is charged upon the king of having ordered, 
by charter, the administration of the oath of supremacy 
to the members and servants of the company, of having 
afterwards arrested the emigration of persons to their 
plantation known to be non-conformists, and, then, at the 
time when he was endeavoring to procure conformity 
from the Presbyterians of Scotland, of intimating that 
the encouragement of Puritanism was the very reason 
why he granted the franchise. The guarded manner in 
which this assertion reaches us proves, that, if made at 
all, it was an ex parte statement, resting solely on the 

1 Kirby's Letter, Sav. Winthrop, - This assertion is found in Win- 
vol. i. p. 103, n. Also Letter of Ed- throp's Journal. 
ward Howes, lb. 



4f4f CHARTER OF THE MASSACHUSETTS BAY COMPANY, 

responsibility of certain meddlers, either friendly or un- 
friendly, it is difficult to conjecture which, to the real 
interests of the colony. The assurance was not that the 
kinjr had made such a declaration, but only that such was 
his view of the matter. Who were these " some of the 
council 1 " What authority had they to compromise 
Charles in so grave a matter] Were they the two 
archbishops, or the Earl of Manchester, the Keeper of the 
privy seal, or the Earl of Dorset, queen's chamberlain, 
or Lord Cottington, chamberlain, or Mr. Secretary Cook, 
or Mr. Secretary Windebanke, or Thomas Meawtis, 
clerk of the council ? These were the signatures affixed 
to the order in council, requiring the arrest of all sus- 
picious vessels bound to the plantation, and the same 
names, with one exception, were included in the royal 
commission shortly after established by King Charles, for 
the better regulation of the English colonies. Is it prob- 
able that these high officers of state, who were so actively 
engaged in promoting the honor of their master, stooped 
to whisper a calumny against him ] And if no calumny, 
why all this stealth, and why was the royal intention not 
made known by proclamation, that all might hear and 
govern themselves accordingly? 
Appoint- On the contrary, when it appeared that this species of 

ment of . . • i i i i i i 

a loyai emigration continuea, that the cliarter was not produced 



coramis- 



April. 



sion. in compliance with the order, and that complaints were 

not hushed by the reprimand of the king, more strenuous 
1634. measures were adopted. A royal commission was issued 
to several lords of the council, among whom were the 
metropolitans of England, intrusting to them the protec- 
tion and government of the English colonies. This com- 
mission contained the amplest powers of supervision ; 
and the lords commissioners were vested with legfal 
authority to establish conformity in America, from the 



AND KING CHARLES THE FIRST. 45 

banks of tlie Kennebec to the shores of Long Island chap. 
Sound. They could, " upon just cause" and with the ' — y — ' 
" royal assent," remove governors, punish dehnquents, 
and constitute tribunals, civil and ecclesiastical. But the 
chief power intrusted to them related specially to Massa- 
chusetts. Whereas, recites the preamble, we, by virtue 
of our royal authority, granted unto divers of our sub- 
jects liberty " not only to enlarge the territories of our 
empire, but more especially to propagate the gospel of our 
Lord Jesus Christ^' we do give unto you all letters-patent 
and other writings whatsoever, by us or our predecessor 
granted, and if, upon view thereof, the same shall appear 
unto you to have been surreptitioushj and undidg oh- 
tained^ or that any privileges or liberties therein granted 
are hurtful to the crown, you shall cause the same to be 
revoked, " according to the laws and customs of Eng- 
land ^^ 

Affairs now hastened rapidly to a crisis. The atten- which cii- 
tion of the lords commissioners was directed exclusively attention 
to the transfer of the charter, and to the equivocal emi- transfer 
gration that was rapidly peopling New England. The cimrter. 
wardens of the Cinque Ports were directed not to suffer 
any persons who were subsidy men to embark for the 
plantations without license, nor any persons under that 
degree, without proper evidence that they had taken the 
oaths of supremacy and allegiance, and tvere in conformity 
with the Church of England. The oath of supremacy 
did not necessarily imply conformity, for both Robinson 
and Brewster, in behalf of the Pilgrims, avowed their 
willingness to take it, if required.^ Thus surely and 
carefully did the commissioners proceed, where so nmch 
deceit had been practised. The Grand Council of Plym- 

^ This important clause both Ban- ^ See their Letter, Hazard, vol. 
croft and Grahame o?nit. i. p. 365. 



April 



46 CHARTER OF THE MASSACHUSETTS BAY COMPANY, 

outh, from wlioin the Company of Massachusetts Bay- 
derived their territory, were next called upon to declare 
by what authority and by whose procurement the transfer 
had been made. They denied all knowledge of the trans- 
1635. action, showing their sincerity by surrendering their own 
patent to the king. They alluded to " the new laws and 
new conceits, both in matters of religion and temporal 
government," established by the Puritans of Massachu- 
setts, " whereby they did 7'end in pieces the first founda- 
tion of the huitding^' and they. prayed the king " to take 
the whole business into his own hands," requesting only 
that those persons who had grants in New England 
might be confirmed in their titles, and " humbly dedicat- 
ing to the foundation of a church ten thousand acres of 
land."i 

The crown was now placed upon its strict legal rights. 
The franchise had been granted to further missionary 
effort, and to increase the prosperity of the kingdom. 
Neither of these objects had been attained. Not a soli- 
tary missionary was laboring among the Indians, and 
instead of that general prosperity of the kingdom con- 
templated by the charter, was a growing connnon^'ealth, 
devoted to its own interests, utterly foreign in character 
as well as position, and the cause of endless confusion 
and complaint. The surrender by the Grand Council of 
Plymouth was followed by an order to the attorney gen- 
eral to bring a quo vjarranto in the King's Bench against 
the corporation, which was accordingly served upon those 
members who were resident in England. But it seems 
that they were wearied in defending the wrong, or had 
become disappointed in their expectations of wealth, for 
they appeared, to the number of fourteen, among whom 

1 Hazard. 



AND KING CHARLES THE FIRST. 47 

were Eaton, Saltonstall, Rosewell, Browne, Vassal, and CHAr. 

Foxcroft, and pleaded that they never usurped " the fran- 

chises in the information," nor did " they use or claim 
any of the same, hut wholly disclaimed them." Judg- 
ment was accordingly given, that they should be wholly 
excluded from the liberties usurped by the company. 
Cradock, the former governor, alone interpleaded, but he 
afterwards suffered default. Judgment, therefore, was 
entered up against him, that he was convicted of the 
usurpation charged in the information, and that the liber- 
ties and franchises of the company should be seized into 
the king's hands. " The rest of the patentees stood out- 
lawed." ^ 

Little further took place. The energies of the crown 
were required for other and more pressing duties. In 
1637, initiatory measures were taken for the reconstruc- July. 
tion of the colonies, and Sir Ferdinando Gorges was 
appointed by the king general governor of New Eng- 
land. But the real difficulty of the plan prevented its 
execution.^ In the mean time, Massachusetts was con- 
tinually receiving an accession of numbers from Eng- 
land, which encouraged her to more bold opposition when 
again summoned before the sovereign she had wronged. 
Two hundred and ninety-eight ships were estimated to 
have sailed for New England, from the time that the 
charter was granted down to the decline of the royal 
cause, and of these one only is said to have miscarried.^ 
On board these ships, which bridged the Atlantic, poured 
the turbid yet vigorous stream of Puritanism that Eng- 
land emptied into her colonies. In 1638 alone, three 
thousand persons forsook their native land for the sterile 
soil and ungenial climate of New England.'* Priests 

' Hazard. 3 Johnson, B. i. ch. 14. 

2 Chalmers's Annals. 4 Winthrop's Journal. 



4fS CHARTER OF THE MASSACHUSETTS BAY COMPANY, 

CHAP, apostatizing, and flying in disguise, people abandoning 
— Y — ' the Holy Mother which had borne and blessed them, 
and nourished them with her choicest food, present a 
spectacle sad enough ; but how awful does it become, 
when we consider that few of this recreant multitude 
could have left the kingdom without first taking the 
oaths of supremacy and allegiance^ and iwoducing certi- 
ficates that thcg tvere in communion tvith a church ivhich 
they had abandoned ! 
Orders the It was not Until 1638 that the lords commissioners, 
sionofthe "calling to mind their former order to Mr. Cradock," 

dmrtcr to 

England, and fortified by the judgment of the King's Bench, de- 
Aprii. spatched fresh orders to Massachusetts, requiring the 
governor, " or any others in whose power or custody " 
was the charter, to transmit the same forthwith to Eng- 
land, and threatening, in the event of " further neglect 
and contempt," to " take a strict course against them." 
They were the more determined in this course, from the 
fact, that the colonial government already considered it 
" perjury and treason " for the freemen of the common- 
wealth to speak of appeals to the king. The freeman's 
oath recognized no country, no church, no God, but 
The order thosc of Puritanism. The general court no sooner 
plied with. Fcccived this order than they voted an address to excuse 
September, their compliance with a demand founded " upon pretence 
that judgment had been passed against their charter upon 
a quo warranto^ An ingenious answer was accordingly 
prepared, wherein the general court declared, that if they 
had been notified of the quo tvarranto^ no doubt they 
could have put in a suflficient plea to it : that, if they 
should transmit the charter to England, " they would be 
looked at as runagates and outlaws ; " that the common 
people would think that his majesty had cast them off; 
and that they would, for their safety, confederate them- 



AND KING CHARLES THE FIRST. 49 

selves under a neiv government, tvhich would he of danger- chap. 
ous example to other plantations. " We do not question ^ — r — - 
your lordships' proceedings," said they, in conclusion ; 
" we only desire to open our griefs where the remedy is 
to he expected. And we are hold to renew our humble 
supplications to your lordships, that Ave may be suffered 
to live here in this wilderness, and that this poor planta- 
tion, which hath found more favor with God than many 
others, may not find less favor with the king." A semi- 
official reply was returned by the lords commissioners, i639. 
through the medium of Mr. Cradock. They endeavored 
to allay the jealousies and fears, which the peremptory 
demand of the charter had occasioned, declared their only 
intentions to be the regulation of all the colonies accord- 
ing to their commission, and promised to continue the 
liberties of the people of Massachusetts as English sub- 
jects. They again called upon the corporation to send 
home the charter, and, as an earnest of their benevolent 
designs, authorized its present government to continue 
until a new patent passed the seals. The general court 
voted to take no notice of this last. order; for, said the 
members, in their debates, it is unofficial ; and the lords 
commissioners cannot ^'■proceed upon it" since they can 
obtain no proof that it zuas delivered to the governor. 
And, the better to insure this result, they directed Mr. 
Cradock's agent, when he again wrote to his principal, 
not to mention the receipt of his last letters.^ 

And thus ended the controversy. Puritanism in Eng-- Vindica- 

•' ^ tion of 

land had passed from the ideal to the actual, and Charles charies i. 
was called upon to struggle for his crown over the totter- 
ing ramparts of the Church. Ought we not to have 
gentle thoughts of his memory, when we consider that 
his last wishes for New England were, that the Holy 

1 Winthrop's Journal. Hubbard. Hutchinson, &c. 
5 



50 CHARTER OF THE MASSACHUSETTS BAY COMPANY, ETC. 

CHAP. Faitli, which had rendered the Mother Country glorious 
-^-^ — ' for eight centuries, might hless the colonies that had 
received her name ? In his controversy with the Massa- 
chusetts Bay Company, he has heen represented by pop- 
ular writers as harsh and tyrannical ; but not only have 
they shut their eyes to the circumstances under which he 
acted, but they have also forgotten, that, had he been a 
real tyrant, he would have avoided the forms of law, and 
with a single armed ship have obtained summary redress. 
In fact, the candid inquirer into the merits of this contro- 
versy will admire the genius of English liberty. He 
will behold a great monarch defrauded by a portion of 
his subjects, and resorting for redress, like the humblest 
citizen, to the courts of law. He will carefully watch 
each step of this remarkable process, from the issue of 
the writ to the final decree ; and he will look in vain for 
any abuse of power, or even undignified menace. Calm, 
quiet, patient, yet determined, is each feature in the curi- 
ous exhibition. And when the proper tribunal has pro- 
nounced, at last, that a serious wrong has been inflicted 
by a party of malcontents upon their sovereign, he will 
find that no pomp or noise announces the royal triumph, 
but a simple order follows for the surrender of a per- 
verted franchise, and a powerful corporation, the mere 
creature of law, becomes, ipso facto, resolved into its 
primary elements. 

We conclude with a single quotation. In their address 
to Charles II., in 1664, the General Court of Massachu- 
setts made use of the following remarkable language : 
"The deepest invention of man cannot find out a more 
certain way of consistence than to obtain a royal donation 
from a great prince, under his great seal, which is the 
greatest security that may be had in human affairs." 
What other or happier vindication does the honor of the 
royal martyr need ! 



CHAPTER II. 

THE PURITAN COMMONWEALTH. 



Part I. 



Nature of the Corporation Government — The Magistrates assume to be 
an Oligarchy — The Freemen claim to be a Privileged Body — Struggle 
between the Aristocratic and Liberal Parties — The General Court be- 
comes a Legislature — The Magistrates call the Elders to their Support 
— The Elders establish a Council for Life — They erect the Magistrates 
into a Senate — The Judicial Authority conferred by the Charter — 
The Puritan State claims the Common Law — The Assistants claim to 
be Judges — The Freemen demand a Body of Laws — The Criminal 
Code of the Puritan State — The Moral Influence of the Puritan State. 

" We had now fair, sunshine weather ; and so pleasant chap. 
a sweet air as did much refresh us, and there came a ^^-^, — 
smell off the shore like the smell of a garden."^ Heaven 
seemed to smile upon the Puritan-Pilgrims. The Old 
World, with its mighty associations, was shut from their 
eyes forever, but, as if to make amends for the loss, 
Nature, in the New World, assumed her brightest colors; 
and the flowers of the forest, arrayed in superhuman 
glory, shed their richest perfume, to welcome the advent 
of Puritanism. But the transfer of the charter was only 
the forerunner of civil and religious usurpations. In 
England, a small bit of parchment, decorated with the 
great seal, and guarded by the courts of Westminster 

' Wlnthrop's Journal. 



52 



THE PURITAN COMMONWEALTH. 



CHAP. Hall, could only mean a grant of privilege. In another 
^ — ^-^ continent, removed beyond the long arm of the law, it 
was construed into a surrender of right. The governor, 
directors, and company resolved themselves into the gov- 
ernor, council, and commonwealth. 

In the preceding chapter, we gave a brief account of 
the Massachusetts Bay Company, showing the curious 
nature of an organization, which was designed for the 
double purpose of commerce and religion. We now pro- 
pose to follow the usurpers of that franchise into the wil- 
derness, and, recalling the events which two centuries 
have failed to conceal, to watch each step of the progress, 
which began with a feeble band of emigrants and ended 
with a powerful commonwealth. We propose to ascer- 
tain, whether the genuine principles of Puritanism were 
those of civil liberty; whether the common people were 
gainers by exchanging the sceptre of their sovereign for 
the sway of an oligarchy ; and whether the institutions, 
which were reared as if by magic on these sterile shores, 
were the free gifts of the elders and magistrates, or the 
defensive creations of the people. 
Nature of The charter provided, for the direction of the com- 

the corpo- » rv • 1 ^ 1 • U* 

ration gov- pauy s atiairs, a governor, deputy governor, and eighteen 
assistants, to be elected annually by all the freemen, or 
members of the franchise, out of their own number. Any 
seven of these assistants, with the governor or his deputy, 
were to be the executive of the company, and, for the 
despatch of business, they were to meet at least once in 
every month. This board of directors, thus chosen, was 
authorized to carry into operation the laws and regula- 
tions established by the general court. Certain powers 
were also intrusted to the assistants, suitable for the 
proper management of a distant plantation ; but the 
charter did not contemplate that they should exercise 



THE PURITAN COMMONWEALTH. 53 

those supreme political rights which belonged only to the part 
king and parliament. ' — * — ' 

Implying the residence of the corporation in England, 
the charter further provided for " four great, general, 
and solemn assemblies," to be held by the governor, 
assistants, and freemen, on every last Wednesday in Hil- 
ary, Easter, Trinity, and Michaelmas Terms, respectively. 
These great and general courts were to have full power 
to admit new members to the franchise, to elect and com- 
mission all suitable officers, and to make by-laws and 
ordinances for the company and its plantation, not con- 
trary to the laws and statutes of England. The court 
of election was to be the general meeting, on the last 
Wednesday in Easter Term. To the governor was 
committed no extraordinary authority. He was to be 
simply the presiding officer of the board of assistants ; 
and the direct powers conferred upon him by charter 
consisted only of administering the oaths of office to the 
deputy governor and the assistants, and of calling a 
meeting of the freemen upon any special emergency. 
Such was the simple machinery of a corporation, whose 
avowed objects were missionary and mercantile enter- 
prise ; and so strictly were its rights and privileges con- 
strued at the outset, that, when Endecott was sent over 
to commence a plantation, he was left out of the board of 
assistants, because he was to reside "out of the land." 

But when the corporate body was transferred, confu- The mag- 

• 1 • 1 istrates as- 

sion of affairs became mevitable ; for the charter miplied sr.me to be 

-r< 1 1 J 1 ^^^ oligar- 

the residence of the franchise in England, and made no cUy. 
provision for the contingencies arising from the establish- 
ment of a commonwealth in a foreign land. For it is 
observable, that an antagonistic spirit between the magis- 
trates and the freemen was continually in operation, dur- 
ing the existence of the first charter. The former had 
5* 



54 THE PURITAN COMMONWEALTH. 

CHAP, set the example in the struggle for power, by converting 
' — r — ' themselves from the directors of a company into the 
rulers of a commonwealth. First perverting their legal 
powers, they then claimed to derive the authority they 
exercised from the charter, and not the freemen. As 
men of some rank and fortune, they were unwilling to 
lose, in the new country, the dignity and consideration 
they had enjoyed in the old. And in this natural ambi- 
tion they were supported by the elders, so long as they 
continued true to the interests of Puritanism. The 
leading political idea of the Puritan Commonwealth 
was boldly proclaimed by the oligarchy themselves. 
" Democracy," wrote John Cotton, with pious horror, 
" I do not conceive that ever God did ordain as a fit 
government either for church or commonwealth ; as for 
monarchy and aristocracy, they are both of them clearly 
approved and directed in the Scripture." ^ " The best 
part of a commonwealth," said John Winthrop, " is 
always the least, and of that best part the wiser is still 
less." ^ Such were the principles Avhich actuated the 
rulers of Massachusetts, and the results were fruitful in 
troubles. The freemen were determined in their oj)posi- 
tion to such assumptions ; and these mutually repelling 
forces were only kept in union by the powerful magnet- 
ism of religion. The elders and the magistrates pre- 
served their ascendency in the government by the use of 
the ingeniously contrived Covenant. The elders were 
sustained by the magistrates ; for ^vho would undergo 
disfranchisement and indignity by raising his voice against 
the church ? The magistrates were supported by the 
elders ; for who would subject himself to spiritual denun- 



1 Cotton's Letter to Lord Say and 2 Belknap's American Biography. 
Seal, in Hutchinson, App. vol. i. 



THE PURITAN COMMONWEALTH. 55 

ciation, and, perhaps, endanger his eternal welfare, by 
endeavoring to overthrow the power of the state X 

For the first few years after the transfer of the char- 
ter, the magistrates were in possession of almost supreme 
authority. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts was 
ushered into existence as a pure oligarchy.^ Taking 
advantage of the feebleness and enthusiasm of the free- 
men, nearly all of whom had accompanied the charter, 
the assistants obtained an unanimous vote, authorizing 1630. 
them to choose the governor and the deputy governor 
out of their own number, and leaving to the freemen 
only the election of the assistants, " tvhen they tvere to he 
chosen^ But this arrangement left open the question 
when the assistants were to be chosen ; and notwithstand- 
ing the charter provided that eighteen of these officers 
should be annually elected by the company, those of them 
only who had come over from England, scarce twelve in 
number, continued quietly in office for nearly two years.^ 
Thus a precedent was, at the outset, obtained for violat- 
ing the provisions of the charter ; and though the free- 
men soon recovered, in the ensuing struggle, their legal 
rights as electors, yet the court of assistants never after- 
wards was composed of a legitimate number of members; 
and the dignities, the emoluments, and, for a considerable 
time, the powers of the government, were monopolized 
by ten or twelve persons.^ 

This contempt for chartered right was accompanied by 
practical wrong. The board of directors, now meta- 
morphosed into a council of state, took the affairs of the 
commonwealth entirely into their own hands ; levying 
taxes, making laws, and punishing with severity all vio- 
lations of their authority. They " exercised all the pow- 

^ See Chalmers's Annals, p. 157. ^ Hutchinson, i. p. 293, n. 

2 Johnson, b. i. ch. 26. 



56 



THE PURITAN COMMONWEALTH. 



August. 



The free- 
men claim 
to be a pri- 
vileged 
body. 



ers of parliament, king's bench, common pleas, chancery, 
hiffh commission, star-chamber, and all the other courts 
of England." ^ At their first meetino;- after the transfer 
of the charter, they sat as a parliament, promulgating a 
number of laws for the regulation of the plantation. 
The operation of these and subsequent laws originating 
from the same source, afforded ample opportunity for the 
exercise of judicial powers, whether civil or criminal. 
As an ecclesiastical court of high commission, they ever 
maintained a jealous watch over the interests of the Puri- 
tan establishment ; inflicting banishments, fines, whip- 
pings, and imprisonments upon heretics, schismatics, and 
dissenters. As a court of star-chamber, they levied taxes 
on the people, without their consent, Jind punished with 
extreme severity those who questioned their authority, 
or treated them with disrespect.^ In fine, the court of 
assistants spared no rigor to advance their power and to 
compel obedience. Supreme authority was lodged in 
the hands of the few, irresponsible, and self-constituted; 
while the many, who had hugged themselves in the 
thought that they should enjoy the largest liberty in the 
wilderness, found that in their new position they were in 
danger of becoming vassals, at the same time that they 
became outlaws. 

The magistrates having set the example in violating 
the charter, the freemen were not slow to follow it. If 



1 Thomas Lechford, a " fractious 
attorney," applied this language, at 
a subsequent period, to the general 
court ; but it may with equal truth, 
and with a better analogy, be used 
towards the court of assistants. See 
Hutchinson, vol. i. p. 398. 

2 I-'or example, read the story of 
the inhabitants of Watertown, in 
Winthrop's Journal, vol. i. p. 70. 
These men feared that they " would 



be brought into bondage," and 
openly declared that they took the 
government " to be no other but as 
a mayor and aldermen, who have no 
power to make laws and levy taxes 
•zvithout the people.^'' One Stone 
was banished the plantation, on pain 
of death, being first heavily fined, 
because he called one of the assist- 
ants Just-ass, instead of Justice. 



• THE PURITAN COMMONWEALTH. 3^ 

the former were exclusive and arbitrary, why could not 
the latter be also a privileged body ? At the general 
court held in May, the freemen proposed and carried 1631. 
that singular measure, to which must be referred many 
of the subsequent troubles of the colony. " To the end," 
says the order, " that the T)odjj of freemen may he iwe- 
served of honest and good men, none shall hereafter be 
admitted to the liherties of this commoiiivealth, hut such 
persons as shall he memhers of some of the churches tvithin 
its jurisdiction.'' ^ Hitherto, men, not " church mem- 
bers," had been freely admitted to the franchise ; and 
only the year before, one hundred persons, some of whom 
were "old planters," had taken the freeman's oath.^ The 
consequences of this regulation were most important. 
Puritanism immediately seized hold of the infant com- 
monwealth with an iron grasp. A large number of the 
inhabitants were not " church members ; " and no matter 
what their wealth or consideration, they became hope- 
lessly a degraded caste, unless they consented to burden 
their consciences with the covenant. For the future, 
they could enjoy no security of life or estate ; they could 
have no voice in the election of their rulers ; and they 
were utterly prostrated at the feet of those whom bigotry 
would always incline to regard non-members of their 
church as adversaries of the state.^ Such was the dawn 
of republicanism on a Puritan horizon ; and, so harsh 
was the operation of this relentless law, that, so late as 
the year 1676, five-sixths of the people were disfran- 
chised." * 

But the freemen soon began to chafe under the vigor- struggle 

" _ between 

ous sway of the olioarchy. A short time before the the aristo- 

•' r> J eratic and 

liberal par- 
ties. 
' Colony Laws. 3 See Lechford, in Hutch, vol. I. 

'■^ Hutchinson. p. 30, n. 

4 Story's Misc. p. 66. 



58 THE PURITAN COMMONWEALTH. 

CHAP, meeting of the court of election, the governor, foreseeing 
'-'-r-^ the impending storm, announced to his fellow-magistrates 
that they would soon he called upon to surrender their 
usurped privileges. He told them, that the freemen not 
only would demand that the assistants should be " chosen 
anew every year," but that they would require that the 
governor himself should be elected by the general court. 
The magistrates were filled with alarm. One " grew 
into a passion," declaring that, in that event, there would 
be no government, and that he should return to Eng- 
land.^ In his opinion, " the bigotry " of a Laud, and 
" the tyranny " of a Stuart, were preferable to a popular 
government. But the ever firm and wise Winthrop 
" answered and cleared the difficulty in the judgment " 
of his compeers. The mode of election " rendered their 
continuance in office almost certain ; " while, as a last 
resort, they could summon the powerful cooperation of 

May. the elders. The general court soon after assembled, the 
great body of the freemen overflowing with jealousy, and 
prepared for an attack upon the oligarchy. The griev- 
ances under which they labored were immediately taken 
up, and they demanded that the governor and assist- 
ants should be chosen every year, by the whole court, 
according to the charter. The measure was carried with- 
out difficulty or opposition ; but the event proved that, 
though the magistrates could not safely obstruct its pas- 
sage, they incurred no immediate danger in yielding it 
their assent. For no sooner had the freemen resumed 
their legitimate rights, than " accordingly the old gover- 
nor and all the rest as before were chosen." 

This attack upon the oligarchy was the beginning of a 
long and interesting struggle. Civil liberty, yet in its 

• Winthrop's Journal. 



THE PURITAN COMMONWEALTH. 59 

infancy, could look nowhere for sympathy. Sixteen 
centuries of Christianity had taught only the duty of 
obedience. On the shores of Massachusetts Bay, Puri- 
tanism was made the unwilling- teacher of a new dispen- 
sation. The increase of the population, the continued 
expansion of the settlements, which, like slow spreading 
fires, were gradually lapping up the wilderness, gave a 
fresh impulse to the growing divisions between the mag- 
istrates and the freemen. The general courts were 
falling into disuse, except as courts of election ; and the 
freemen, scattered loosely over the soil, found that they 
were subjected to a central power, which, at the same 
time, was the keeper and interpreter of the charter, the 
maker and enforcer of the law. Unwilling to lose their 
just rights, and ignorant of the true construction of the 
charter, which many of them probably had never seen, 
they " deputed two of each town " to meet at Boston, i634 
and consult respecting their anomalous position. The 
court of election was soon to be held, and it was con- 
sidered necessary that this primitive caucus should make 
some preparation for an event which had hitherto met 
them too much in dishabille. The deputies had no sooner 
assembled than they demanded " a sight of the patent," 
and, reading therein that the power of making laws was 
lodged with the general court, they repaired in a body to 
the governor for an explanation. The interview was 
unsatisfactory. They were told that the charter never 
contemplated so great an increase of freemen^ and that, 
therefore, its provision concerning the la^^^naking power 
was unfitted for " so great a body ; " that, as it was not 
possible for the freemen to make and execute the laws, it 
became necessary for them to intrust that duty to others ; 
that, though hereafter it might be proper for them to 
choose " a select company for the work," yet, in their 



April. 



60 THE PURITAN COMMONWEALTH. 

CHAP, present condition, they had not a sufficient number of 
^ — :■ — ' men qualified for so important a task ; but that, at the 
ensuing general court, they might make an order, that in 
every year, " upon summons from the governor," a cer- 
tain number of the freemen should be delegated to revise 
the laws, to reform what should be amiss, and to see that 
no taxes were levied or lands disposed of without their 
consent. At the same time, they were cautioned that this 
" committee " of the freemen would be permitted to make 
no new laws, and that their grievances must be, in all 
cases, preferred to the court of assistants.^ 
The gen- Such was the arrogant manner in which the governor 

Grn.1 court 

becomes treated the deputies of the freemen ; and his conduct, on 
ture° this memorable occasion, has been well likened to that of 

an absolute sovereign, deigning to grant a favor to his 
subjects.^ But the consultations of the deputies had 
their good effects, and prepared the freemen for concerted 
May. action. When the general court assembled, " twenty- 
four of the principal inhabitants appeared, as the repre- 
sentatives of the people." The illegality of this pro- 
ceeding was not for one moment considered. A ready 
apology was found in the impracticability of assembling, 
at one time and place, all the freemen of the state, and 
in the danger that would threaten so many families left 
exposed to the ravages of the Indians. In truth, the 
charter was the last thing thought of, at this agitated 
session of the court. The elders were engaged in 
preaching against rotation in office ; ^ while the deputies 
and the magistrates were fully occupied in struggling for 
their respective orders. But here, at least, the freemen 
had the advantage over the oligarchy. The deputies 
would hear of no elections until they had given expression 

1 Winthrnp's Journal. ^ Winthrop's Journal. 

2 Sav. Winthrop, vol. i. p. 129, n. 



THE PURITAN COMMONWEALTH. 61 

to the grievances under which their constituents labored, part 
They resolved, that it belonged to the general court to - — v-^ 
make laws, to appoint and remove officers, and to assign 
them their duties ; and also, that the general court alone 
had power to levy taxes, and to make grants of land. 
These resolutions were followed by the elections, and the 
general displeasure was exhibited by the choice of a new 
governor. The members of the court then resolved 
themselves into a " supreme legislative assembly," declar- 
ing that the general court, consisting of magistrates and 
deputies, was the chief civil power of the commonwealth; 
that four yearly sessions should be held, to be summoned 
by the governor, but not to be dissolved without their 
own consent ; that it should be lawful for the freemen to 
meet, by their deputies, before each session, and confer 
together upon such business as should seem necessary to 
be brought to the notice of the court ; and that the repre- 
sentatives of the freemen, duly chosen by them, should be 
entitled to the same privileges as by charter were con- 
ferred upon their constituents, the elections only excepted. 
The elections, the source of all executive power, the free- 
men reserved to themselves ; and a law was soon after 
passed, authorizing them to cast their votes in the several 
to\vns where they resided. Having thus resumed into 
their hands their legitimate rights, the deputies imposed 
fines upon the magistrates for the abuses of which they 
had been guilty.^ 

In this summary manner, the court of assistants was The magis- 
stripped of its exclusive legislative authority. Hence- the eiders 

,, ^ . . , , /, -to their 

forth, it could only act as a component part oi the general support. 
court, so far as legislation was concerned. But, wiser 
by experience, the magistrates intrusted their cause for 

' Hutchinson, vol. i. p. 39. Sav. Winthrop, vol. i. p. 132. Colony 
Laws. 

6 



62 THE PURITAN COMMONWEALTH. 

CHAP, the future to the powerful arm of their church. This 
• — N->-' step was the more necessary, when they began to be 
divided among themselves. In the year following, the 
magistrates, alarmed at the encroachments of the free- 
men, were at issue on a question of public policy. In 
1635. the elections for this year, they had been again made to 
feel, more unpleasantly than before, the indignation of 
the freemen, and symptoms of a republican spirit were 
breaking forth in the general court. There was a gen- 
eral clamor for a Magna Cliarta} What was the wisest 
plan for arresting the progress of so foul a disease \ 
One party, led by Winthrop, maintained that, " in the 
infancy of plantations," government should be adminis- 
tered with lenity ; and others, with Dudley at their head, 
insisted that severity was the wiser course. The division 
was of an alarming nature ; for in a contest like theirs, 
the few against the many, unanimity is of the last im- 
portance. The subject was finally referred to the elders, 
who gave their opinion, that " strict discipline " is more 
necessary in plantations than settled states, for the pres- 
ervation of " the honor and safety of the gospel." To 
this decision, Winthrop submitted with much meekness, 
apologizing for his former remissness, and promising, 
" by God's assistance, to take a more strict course." 
Harmony was restored, by a concession which stung the 
last hours of the humane Winthrop ; ^ and it was unani- 
mously agreed that the government should be adminis- 
tered with more rigor ; that the magistrates should 
always consult together in private, before the sessions of 
the general court, in order that their " votes in public 
might hear as the voice of God ; " that, to the governor 
should be confided the main control of the court ; that 

1 Sav. Winthrop, vol. i. pp. 155, 2 See Hutchinson, vol. i. p. 142. 
158, 1591 160, &c. 



THE PURITAN COMMONWEALTH. 63 

all contempts of the court, or of the persons of the mag- part 
istrates, should be specially noticed and punished ; and - — . — - 
that they should appear with more solemnity in public, 
and with " the attendance and apparel " befitting their 
rank.^ 

The determination to use more rigor in the govern- The eiders 

Gstiblisli 3. 

ment was, perhaps, the most unwise measure that could council for 
have been adopted, and was followed by a scheme equally 
imprudent. It began to be evident that the magistrates 
were contending against fearful odds ; and that they, who 
had, in all respects, made the greatest sacrifices for the 
common cause, were in danger of sinking into the com- 
mon level of the freemen. Happily for their influence, they 
cast the burden of their support upon the elders ; though 
these could not arrest the huge principles that Puritanism 
had unwittingly set in motion, but were only able to 
modify their bearing, and to check their rapid progress. 
While, therefore, the Puritan leaders in the New World 
were struggling against the growth of civil liberty, it 
was gratifying to them to learn that they had the sym- 
pathy of men of rank in England. Four months had 
not elapsed from the secret resolutions above mentioned, 
when the oligarchical longing of the magistrates took a 
bolder flight. Lord Say and Seal, Lord Brook, and 
other persons of quality, who were of the Puritan party 
in England, contemplated removing to New England, 
and addressed proposals to the government of Massachu- 
setts, requiring, as an indispensable condition, the estab- 
lishment of an hereditary oligarchy. To this stipulation, 
the magistrates, however anxious, were unable to accede ; 
but, in their reply, they acknowledged two distinct ranks 
to exist in every state, " from the light of nature and 

i Winthrop's Journal. 



64f THE PURITAN COMMONWEALTH. 

Scripture ; the one of them called princes, or nobles, or 
elders, and the other the people." And fearing lest the 
rising preponderance of the freemen would discourage 
the applicants from coming over, the general court was 
prevailed upon, " by the advice and solicitation of the 
elders," to establish a standing council, who should be 
the active assistants of the governor, and hold office dur- 
ing life. The number that was to compose this council, 
was purposely left uncertain ; and only three were chosen 
at first, in order that " an open door might be kept for 
such desirable gentlemen as should come over." ^ 

Strengthened by union, and armed with their new dig- 
nity, the oligarchy again flung themselves into the polit- 
ical arena, to contend against the freemen. By charter, 
legislative acts required only the assent of a majority of 
the freemen, assembled in general court. On its floor, 
magistrates and freemen were supposed to meet, not as 
rulers and ruled, but as members of the same company, 
deliberating for the general welfare. Even the governor 
was but primus inter pares until 164<1, when the general 
court conferred upon him a casting-vote in the assembly.^ 
Such a construction of the charter, however well adapted 
for a commercial company, was utterly opposed to the 
legislation of a commonwealth, and particularly to the 
pretensions of an aristocratic magistracy. This difficulty 
had been somewhat remedied in that bold measure, which 
authorized the freemen to appear in the general court, by 
their representatives. Still, the preponderance of the 
deputies was very great ; for each town was represented 
by three of its inhabitants, and, while the magistrates 
never exceeded twelve in number, the deputies could 
muster more than thirty. To remedy this inconvenience, 

' Hutchinson, vol. I. Appendix, ~ Colony Laws, 
p. 436. Winthrop's Journal. 



THE PURITAN COMMONWEALTH. 65 

which increased with the increase of population, the part 
magistrates proposed " to reduce all towns to two depu- ' — y-^ 
ties."' The effect of this measure, got up, doubtless, at May. 
a private meeting of the assistants, before the session of 
the court, seems not to have been immediately apparent, 
and the order was carried with little opposition. But 
when the subject was discussed in the several towns of 
the jurisdiction, " the people were much displeased with 
their deputies, for yielding to such an order," and fear 
was entertained that " the magistrates intended to bring 
all power into their own hands." Whereupon, at the 
next session of the court, a petition was presented on 
behalf of the freemen, demanding the abrogation of the 
law. A warm debate arose upon the question, for " the 
hands of some of the elders were to this petition, though 
suddenly drawn in, and without due consideration." On 
the one hand, it was said that such a movement " savored 
of resisting an ordinance of God ; " on the other, it was 
alleged that the reduction of the deputies was an infringe- 
ment of the liberty of the freemen. Finally, " such 
reasons were given" for the law, and such proofs afforded 
" that their liberty rested not in numbers, but the thing,'' 
that the petition was dismissed.^ 

The freemen were soon revenged. The standing 
council had been in existence for three years, and the 
noblemen, whose application suggested "the new order 
of magistrates," had relinquished all designs of emigra- 
tion. But the oligarchy, far from being content with 
their acquisition, made it a plea for further advantage. 
The standing council had been won from the freemen by 
arguments " from the Word of God ; " possibly the 
same means would prove successful in demonstrating that 

1 See Sav. Winthrop, vol. i. p. 300. 2 Ibid. pp. 300, 301. 

6* 



66 THE PURITAN COMMONWEALTH. 

CHAP, not only '• the principal magistrates," but the governor 
' — r — ' himself, should hold office during life ! This plot, gen- 
erated, apparently, at one of the secret sessions of the 
assistants, before the meeting of the general court, was 
hatched in a sermon. An elder harangued the free- 
men, as they were preparing their votes for the elections, 
declaring that, in his opinion, " a governor ought to be 
for life," and illustrating his position by a reference to 
" the best commonwealths in Europe, and especially that 
of Israel." Contrary to expectation, the bold idea en- 
countered immediate hostility. The freemen suspected 
that " there had been some plot to put it in practice ; " 
and the deputies not only refused to listen to the pro- 
posal, but immediately passed an order that " no person 
chosen a counsellor for life should have any authority as 
a magistrate, except he were chosen in the annual elec- 
tions to one of the places of magistracy, established by 
the patent." Thus the standing council was virtually 
destroyed ; and though the magistrates, mortified by 
their double defeat, at first hesitated to give the vote 
their assent, they soon ratified it in substance, conscious 
that contention would only give color to the popular 
jealousy. 
They erect The principle of " the negative voice," was yet another 

the magis- r i • • ^ n o 

tratesiiito attempt 01 the magistrates to overpoise the freemen. I^o 
early as 1634*, the question had arisen, whether the assist- 
ants could negative a vote of the deputies. The former 
maintained the affirmative with much earnestness, in 
order " to balance the greater number " of the latter, and 
they endeavored to establish its legality by referring to 
the charter. Since it was therein provided, that every 
general court should include among its members the 
governor and at least six of the assistants, it was argued, 
that this provision made it necessary that these should 



THE PURITAN COMMONWEALTH. 67 

concur in every law, in order to render it valid. This part 
construction of the charter the deputies resisted. A day ^ — r — ' 
of fasting was appointed " to seek the Lord," and Mr. 
Cotton preached a sermon, wherein he demonstrated that 
" the strength of the magistracy was their authority, of 
the people their liberty, and of the ministry their purity;" 
and he showed how each of these orders in a state has a 
negative voice on the others. But though the question 
was put to rest for the time, the deputies were not satis- 
fied. A favorable opportunity only was wanting, to 
kindle fresh agitation. In 164<2, a poor woman peti- 
tioned the general court concerning her title to a sow, 
which, she alleged, was unjustly disputed. The sympa- 
thies of the deputies were enlisted in her behalf, and a 
majority were in favor of granting her prayer. But the 
assistants, weighing the evidence more carefully, were 
otherwise minded. Seven magistrates and eight deputies 
prevailed against two magistrates and fifteen deputies ; 
and it was noised about the country, that the negative 
voice of the magistrates " had hindered the course of 
justice." The commonwealth was quickly in flames. In 
vain the magistrates declared that their negative voice 
had been established upon " serious consultation with the 
elders ; " the discussion was removed from the floor of 
the general court, and occupied the streets and market 
places, the fields and the woods. Again, in the short 
space of fourteen years, the sounds of the flail and of the 
axe were mingled with imprecations against the tyranny 
of the magistrates. Treatises and pamphlets were show- 
ered about ; showing, on the one side, that the negative 
voice was a fundamental principle of all governments, 
and that, if removed, the commonwealth would become a 
democracy ; and, on the other, that such a power was an 



68 THE PURITAN COMMONWEALTH. 

usurpation, unknown to the charter, and dangerous to the 
Hberties of the people. The question was " handled both 
scholastically and religiously," but the excitement did not 
abate. The freemen were agitated by a jealousy, which 
would yield neither to the finesse of the magistrate nor 
the sanctity of the elder. 

The commotion, caused by " the sow business," was 
increased by an unexpected event. One of the magis- 
trates, who had no seat in the standing council, became 
suddenly convinced of its illegality, and prepared an 
anonymous treatise against " the sinful innovation," for 
the use of the deputies. Although this council existed 
now only in name, the oligarchy were careful to preserve 
the imaginary distinction it conferred ; and when " the 
reproachful and dangerous treatise " fell into their hands, 
they endeavored to have it publicly censured. But the 
court, persuaded of " the honest intentions " of its author, 
refused to entertain the subject, unless he was first acquit- 
ted of all blame. At length, with some difficulty, the 
deputies were prevailed upon to submit the soundness of 
the book to the elders. The ecclesiastical decision, on a 
point of so much importance, was not hastily given ; and 
predetermined, therefore, as were the members of the 
sacred college, they went through the form of meeting in 
1642. general assembly at Ipswich, in order to give their opin- 
ion the solemnity of a synodical decree. The result was 
not long doubtful, and, indeed, must have been foreseen. 
The validity of the standing council was established, but 
with such admirable ingenuity, that it was deprived of 
all power independent of the court of assistants. At 
the same time, the dignity of the magistrates and the 
scruples of the freemen were equally cared for by the 
ambiguous opinion, that the council should be composed 



October 



THE PURITAN COMMONWEALTH. 69 

of " select men, taken out from the assistants, or other 
freemen^ ^ 

But the breach continued to widen on the question of 
" the negative voice," until at last it was proposed by the 1643. 
magistrates that this dispute should likewise be referred 
to the elders. To the apparent fairness of the proposal 
there could be no objection, and yet the success of the 
stratagem must have been foreknown. But there was 
no remedy ; for to have cast a shadow upon the purity of 
the elders, would have incurred certain and severe pun- 
ishment. Before the meeting of the next general court, 
the elders settled, by a most singular construction of the 
charter, the legality of the negative voice, and thus for- 
ever silenced the clamor of the deputies. Inch by inch, 
however, the deputies contested the ground ; and, as the 
validity of the negative voice could no longer be ques- 
tioned, they determined that its operation should be 
mutual. An order was moved and carried, that hence- 1644. 

„ , . . „ . . March. 

forth, on account of " the mconvenience oi sittmg to- 
gether," the two branches of the legislature should hold 
their sessions by themselves, and that all bills should be 
sent for concurrence from one to the other. "This order 
determined the great contention."^ 

Such was the process by which the general court of a 
company was resolved into the legislature of a common- 
wealth. The Corporation of Massachusetts Bay was 
now completely merged in the Puritan State ; and its 
simple machinery, well fitted for the business of trade 
and commerce, was adroitly moulded to the system of 
checks and balances. By their able management of this 
contest, in which they had not only to struggle against 
the magistrates, but to thwart the counsels of the elders, 

' Sav. Winthrop, vol. ii. p. 89. 2 Colony Laws. Sav. Wlnthrop, 

vol. ii. pp. 159, 160. 



70 THE PURITAN COMMONWEALTH. 

the deputies of the freemen preserved the hberties of 
their constituents. The "negative voice" alone saved 
the power of the magistrates, or rather saved them from 
sinking into insignificance. Emboldened by success, the 
deputies aimed at greater results. Scarcely had the gen- 
eral court been metamorphosed into an upper and lower 
house, than the deputies, aspiring to participate in the 
May. executive powers of the government, sent up to the 
court of assistants a bill, by which seven magistrates, 
three deputies, and one elder, were constituted a commis- 
sion, " to order all the affairs of the commonwealth." 
The assistants immediately negatived the bill, alleging 
that such a measure would overthrow the foundation of 
the government and the liberties of the people. A con- 
ference between the two bodies produced no agreement. 
It was said, on the one side, that such an executive com- 
mission would recognize the deputies as the source of all 
power, and would deprive several of the magistrates of 
their offices ; whereas the magistrates exercised their 
functions by patent and election. On the other side, it 
was urged that there were precedents where the magis- 
trates had received orders from the general court, and 
had varied from the charter ; and it was further insisted, 
that tliey had no power out of court, except what was 
given them by the court. To this it was replied, that 
vjrong examples are errors,, and not precedents ; and that 
if the magistrates had^ in any respect, varied from the 
charter, they had not impaired the foundation of the 
government. It was in vain that the deputies proposed 
to limit the commission to emergencies of war, and to 
include therein all the assistants ; the magistrates refused 
to accept any commission, but offered either to increase 
their own number, or to leave the subject to the elders. 
The proposition was unhesitatingly declined by the depu- 



THE PURITAN COMMONWEALTH. 7^ 

ties, who requested " that nothing might be done till the 
court met again." The magistrates replied, " that if 
occasion required, they must act according to the power 
and trust committed to them." The denial of this request 
produced so much bitter feeling, that the speaker of the 
deputies informed the magistrates that they would not he 
obeyed} 

The court adjourned without harmony, and was again 
assembled in a few days, in consequence of difficulties 
with the Indians. A high military office was to be 
immediately filled, and the embarrassing question pre- 
sented itself, from whom was the incumbent to receive 
his instructions ? The commission agreed upon referred 
him to the council of the commonwealth ; but would the 
deputies allow this to mean the court of assistants ? In 
this dilemma, the magistrates thought proper to sign a 
protest in maintenance of their authority, in which they 
denied the current imputations, that they were endeavor- 
ing " to bring in an arbitrary government." The depu- 
ties, afraid, perhaps, of the disfranchised class, desired 
that the declaration should not be published, and con- 
sented that, " for the peace and safety of the colony," 
the magistrates should discharge their usual duties until 
the next session of the court, when they hoped that the 
question would be finally settled. To this arrangement 
the magistrates assented with alacrity. They could now 
foresee a favorable termination to the awkward contro- 
versy. In all these popular outbreaks, " it tvas the 
magistrates only care to gain time, that so the people's 
heat might be abated, and that the advice of the elders 
might be interposed^ Accordingly, when the general 
court again assembled, " all the elders were sent for to October. 

^ WInthrop. Hutchinson. 



72 THE PURITAN COMMONWEALTH. 

reconcile the difterences between the magistrates and 
deputies." They occupied but a single night in con- 
sultation, and in the morning unanimously declared that 
the assistants were, by patent and election, the standing 
council of the commonwealth ; that with them was 
lodged the magistratical power ; that their authority was 
limited, in all ordinary cases, by the laws and charter, 
hut was not derived from the freemen^ whose only prov- 
ince it was to designate such persons as were fit to exer- 
cise it ; and that in extraordinary cases, where no express 
law was provided, the magistrates were only to be guided 
by the Word of God.^ As usual, the sacred oracles 
declared for the patricians ; and though some of the lead- 
ing freemen continued " fixed upon their o^vn opinions," 
and, from time to time, stirred up fresh troubles in the 
commonwealth, yet they never succeeded in dislodging 
the oligarchy from their final position. 

One more attempt was made to diminish the number 
of the deputies. Making use of the plea of economy, 
and, perhaps, with sincerity, the magistrates offered, in 
1645. the following year, to surrender their negative voice, if 
the freemen would consent that their deputies should not 
exceed them in number, and that these should be " the 
prime men of the country," elected by the shires, instead 
of the towns. The proposition was declined, and prob- 
ably never again brought forward.^ But, for a long 
series of years, the magistrates had no reason to be dis- 
contented with their power and influence. The elders 
supported their every motion, and nearly anticipated their 
every wish. It was only when the successors of the old 
magistracy had waxed cold in the first love of their 
fathers, that the elders, whose hostility to the church 

' Sav. Winthrop, vol. ii. p. 208. 2 Jb. p. 214. 



THE PURITAN COMMONWEALTH. *^S 

and throne had only increased witli each year of their pakt 
unhappy schism, cast the weiglit of their influence in ^ — '< — ' 
favor of the freemen. One of the last scenes presented 
to us by the colonial history of Massachusetts, is the 
remarkable one of the elders and deputies allied together 
in confronting- the magistrates, who, in the form of a 
prerogative party, were endeavoring to surrender their 
franchise to the king. 

We now behold the Company of Massachusetts Bay a 
regularly organized commonwealth, with an executive, 
senate, and house of representatives. The charter has 
become a constitution, and the members of the franchise 
have usurped the dignity of citizens. We might pursue 
this branch of our inquiry further ; but enough has been 
said to establish our position, that the spirit of Puritan- 
ism was hostile to the principles of liberty on the shores 
of Massachusetts Bay. We ha\ e shown that the Puritan 
Commonwealth was saved from absolute despotism only 
by the determined opposition of the freemen, and that 
the elders and magistrates were alike the enemies of 
popular freedom. The republican cast, into which the 
body politic was moulded, was forced upon it by the 
freemen, in spite of the elders and magistrates. The 
oligarchy shrunk from it with aversion. A more sum- 
mary mode of redress would have been, doubtless, to 
have discontinued their rulers in office ; but apart from 
the consideration that this step would have brought do^^^l 
the thunder of a Puritan anathema, wealth, learning, a 
certain prestige of rank, and, more than these, influence 
in high places at home, all conspired in favor of the aris- 
tocratic magistracy. It was a wise reflection which 
taught the turbulent freemen that they were better 
fitted to break the pride of their rulers than to assume 
the responsibility of guiding their outlawed ship of state. 



74< THE PURITAN COMMONWEALTH. 

CHAP. Nor let US waste our sympathy in behalf of the free- 
— . — ' men, as we read of their earnest and ingenious efforts 
against the oligarchy. They were not struggling for 
humanity, but only for self. They thought little and 
cared less for that large class of their fellow-subjects, 
who were disfranchised by their own unjust laws, and 
who far exceeded them in number. For, to such a 
length did they carry their illiberal prejudices, that the 
magistrates were afraid to deny openly " the aspersions 
cast upon them," lest the disfranchised population should 
side with them, and so render their cause, " though never 
so just, obnoxious to the common sort of freemen." ^ 
Hopeless, indeed, was the condition of the " non-mem- 
bers." They were subject to laws they did not make, 
and governed by rulers over whom they had no control. 
Including persons of different ranks in life, of various 
religious opinions, rich and poor, young and old, yet 
they were out of the pale of the Puritan Commonwealth, 
because they refused to enslave themselves to the Puritan 
Covenant. The most vulgar citizen, who knew nothing 
beyond his last or shears, could lord it over the scholar 
and the gentleman with impunity. Hear the voice of a 
contemporary w riter, upon the condition of the disfran- 
chised class : " The most of the persons at New England 
are not admitted of their churchy and therefore are not 
freemen ; and tvhen they come to he tried there^ he it for 
life or liinh, name or estate, or tvhatsoevcr, they must he 
tried and judged too hy those of the church, who are, in a 
sort, their adversaries. Hoto equal that hath hccn, or 
may he, some hy experience do hiow, others may judged ^ 
Such was the spirit of New England Puritanism. Ut- 
terly opposed to civil and religious liberty, yielding 

^ Sav. Winthrop, vol. ii. p. 171. 2 Lechford, quoted in Hutch, vol. 

i. p. 30. 



THE PURITAN COMMONWEALTH. ^5 

nothing- to humanity excepting what humanity absolutely part 
forced from it, it barred, like a flaming sword, the path- ^^-^^ 
way of human rights, to all but its own familiars and 
worshippers. 

However gratifying, then, it would be to applaud the 
motives of the freemen, in their struggle with the magis- 
trates, our lips must be sealed. Had a noble, though 
mistaken idea of right, animated their efforts, we should 
readily pardon the mistake in our admiration at the 
motive. But when we see the selfish, arrogant, and 
censorious character displayed by these vain-glorious 
" church-members ; " when we behold them pushing 
their animosities into private life, and hanging a vener- 
able lady for witchcraft, whose only protection was her 
gray hairs, and whose only fault, that she was the 
widow of a magistrate ; when we read of the use made 
of the power they wrested from their rulers, and the 
unrelenting spirit with which they clung, to the last, to 
their exclusive religionism ; when we hear of their beard- 
ing their sovereign, and bullying their political inferiors, 
deceiving the one, and outraging the other ; when we 
find that they could, on a common platform, join with the 
magistrates in distinguishing between " gentlemen " and 
" people of mean condition," even in articles of dress ; 
when, in short, we see that, in both church and state, 
they acted for a class, and not for the mass ; we shall be 
obliged to confess, that " the common sort of freemen," 
even, were utterly ignorant of the principles of liberty, 
and that in this ignorance they were encouraged by the 
genius of their religion. Surely it is a pleasing reflec- 
tion, that churchmen were the first to raise their voices 
against the intolerance of Puritanism on these rude 
shores, and the first who were called upon to suffer from 
its tyrannical impostures. Nor should it be forgotten, 



ter, 



76 THE PURITAN COMMONWEALTH. 

CHAP, paradoxical and incredible as it may seem, that the dis- 
"^^-y — ' franchised people of Massachusetts Bay owed their final 
emancipation, not to the generous, voluntary sacrifices of 
enlightened Puritanism, but to the compulsory interposi- 
tion of Charles Stuart the Second. 
The judi- Hitherto, our inquiries have been directed towards the 
rity con- manner in which the Republic of Massachusetts was 
the^chai^ cvolvcd from the Company of Massachusetts Bay. We 
now would call attention to a kindred subject, which we 
have only partially touched upon, and which is of great 
importance in this connection ; we refer to the judiciary 
and laws of the Puritan Commonwealth. It will be 
recollected that, by charter, the governor and freemen 
of the company, residing in England, were authorized to 
make by-laws, not contrary to the statutes of the realm, 
for their own regulation, and also for the management 
of their plantations. This distinction taken between the 
company and the plantations of the company, between 
the laws of England and the sub-laws of the corporation, 
which is breathed in almost every paragraph of the char- 
ter, further proves, that originally a settlement was con- 
templated in the New World, which, for certain purposes, 
was placed under the management of the company, but 
not so as to deprive the colonists of their rights or duties 
as subjects. The company was authorized to discipline 
its servants and to punish disobedience, but not to exer- 
cise the prerogatives of sovereignty. 

By charter, also, the chief commanders, captains, 
superintendents, and other officers of the company, em- 
ployed in the immediate management of the plantation, 
or " on the way thither by sea," were authorized to 
administer these by-laws, and to rule, punish, and pardon 
all such persons as were in the service of the corporation. 
It was to this class of officers, who, as the commanders 



THE PURITAN COMMONWEALTH. 77 

of a settlement in a savage country, were of a military part. 
rather than civil character, that the charter necessarily ^^-^r — - 
confided the enforcement of discipline. The freemen, or 
stockholders of the company, not changing- their domicile, 
were subject to no other regulations than those common 
to " other corporations in the realm." The board of 
assistants, which afterwards exercised such unlimited 
jurisdiction, was too far removed from the plantations to 
sit as a court of justice, or to punish violations of the 
law. The magistratical authority, which the assistants 
afterwards usurped, was as unknown as it was unneces- 
sary. To be the general managers of the pecuniary 
interests of the company, to advise and assist the gov- 
ernor in his executive duties, were all the powers that 
they claimed. It is true, that some flagrant cases of 
injustice were perpetrated by Endecott, while superin- 
tending the plantation of the company ; but he acted 
without the assent, express or implied, of the board of 
assistants. " The colonists being then but an embryo, 
were willingly subject to, and governed by, those whole- 
some and known laws of the kingdom of England, 
acknowledging only their willing obedience to such rules 
and ordinances as were by the corporation agreed upon 
as necessary for the carrying on of their present affairs, 
and yearly sent over from England.'' ^ 

The transfer of the charter rendered it necessary to 
change all this, and to assert a higher prerogative. We 
must distinguish, said the general court, in 1646, " be- 
tween corporations within England, and corporations of, 
but not within, England. All that dwell within England 
are subject to the laws in general ; but foreign planta- 
tions are subject only to some laws of state." ^ Thus, 

1 Hubbard. tion of Child, Maverick, et al., in 

2 Committee's Answer to Peti- Winthrop's Journal. 

7* 



78 THE PURITAN COMMONWEALTH. 

CHAP, taking advantage of their own wrong, the company 
^ — ' — ' claimed by right both the law-making and law-enforcing 
power. The assistants clothed themselves in the ermine 
of magistrates, and erected their court into a forum of 
justice. Nor was this usurpation wholly without neces- 
sity. For, when the company was converted into a 
conmionwealth, and its members became a people, then, 
both a law to govern and a power to execute, more 
immediate than the far-off" sovereignty of England, more 
complete than the petty police system suitable for the 
discipline of a semi-military settlement, became also 
necessary incidents. By common consent, therefore, the 
assistants were dubbed magistrates, and were authorized, 
without a murmur, to exercise the offices of the highest 
tribunals in the realm. How republican they were in 
the discharge of their extraordinary powers appears from 
the fact, that for two years they continued quietly in 
office, exercising, at the same time, the executive, legisla- 
tive, and judicial functions, and dispensing with juries in 
nearly all cases, civil and criminal.' 
The Puri- Fortunatclv for the cause of civil liberty, the freemen 

tan State . •' ,...,, 

claims the " claimed the common law, as their birthri^^ht," and 

common , ~ 

law. boasted that the same breeze which spread the sails of 

their barks, bore upon its wings the genius of that 
splendid system. The common law, which, originating 
with the primitive Britons, was handed down through 
successive dynasties and inhabitants, the Romans, the 
Picts, the Saxons, the Danes, and the Normans, borrow- 
ing from both Pagan and Christian civilizations some 
wise customs and noble maxims, was transplanted by the 
fathers of New England, in order that it might bless 
their rising commonwealth. But they claimed only such 

' Hutchinson. Colony Laws. 



THE PURITAN COMMONWEALTH. 79 

portions of it as were applicable to their condition ; and, part 
whenever it conflicted with this, it was violated without > — r — ' 
hesitation. Still, it formed the grand basis on which 
were erected the institutions which have made the wilder- 
ness to blossom as the rose. The common law was the 
birthright of the freemen, as it became infused, more or 
less, into all their political acts. It saved them, perhaps, 
from despotism ; and by their wise precaution became, to 
the commonwealth, a permanent and healthy sanative. 
But, in the leading modifications it received, we can 
readily discover the action of two great principles, each 
struggling to neutralize the other. And these were the 
same which divided the state into aristocratic and repub- 
lican parties. It was the republican spirit which abol- 
ished the laws of primogeniture ; the oligarchical which 
preserved the system of entails. It was the former 
which swept away, at one blow, " the feudal burdens ; " 
the latter which preserved, in all its strictness, the relation 
of master and servant, and substituted slavery for villanage. 
It was the former which insisted upon the establishment of 
the trial by jury ; the latter which withheld from juries, 
with jealous care, the deternnnation of the law. It was the 
former which caused the omission of the king's name in 
all legal process ; the latter which, denying the freemen as 
the source of power, substituted the name of the magis- 
trates. Finally, it was the former which asserted that 
the forms of all civil government are " the ordinances of 
man ; " the latter which invested these forms with the 
majesty of divine right. Hereditary honors are to the 
few, said the magistrates, what hereditary liberty is to 
the many.^ But the freemen, actuated by a wise sense 
of danofer, felt that the honor of the commonwealth 



&' 



' See Hutchinson, vol. i. Appendix, p. 433. 



80 THE PURITAN COMMONWEALTH. 

CHAP, would be more safe with hereditary Hberty than its Hber- 
' — ^ ties with hereditary honors. 



The assist- The common law claimed by the Puritan pilgrims 

ants claim ,, , i r .^ ' ^• 

to be was " the common law or their native country, as it was 
■' ° " amended or altered by English statutes in force at the 
time of their emigration." Comparing their common- 
wealth to the then States of Burgundy and Flanders, and 
to the Hanse Towns of Germany, they acknowledged, at 
times, a quasi dependence upon the crown of England, 
but " not in point of government." ^ From the moment 
that they landed on the shores of Massachusetts Bay, 
they legislated for themselves. It is, therefore, particu- 
larly to their original statutes and ordinances that we 
should refer, to obtain a just knowledge of the spirit of 
their laws. During the exclusive sway of the oligarchy, 
the court of assistants governed " according to their dis- 
cretions," sitting, as we have said, both as a court of 
justice and as a legislature, and punishing ad libitum the 
violations of the laws which they had themselves estab- 
lished. Equity, said Mr. Selden, in contempt, is accord- 
ing to the conscience of the chancellor, and the con- 
science of the chancellor is as uncertain as the length 
of his foot. One chancellor has a long foot, another a 
short foot, a third an indifferent foot ; it is the same with 
their consciences. This quaint old sarcasm of a common 
lawyer might have been used with admirable effect, in 
illustrating the jurisdiction of the Puritan magistrates. 
They professed to be governed by equity, according to 
the circumstances of the case ; and " as for authorities or 
precedents, they had none beyond the reason and umler- 
standing which God had given them."^ 
The free- But the general court had no sooner assumed the 

1 Sav. Winthrop, vol. ii. p. 279. '-^ Hutchinson. 



THE PURITAN COMMONWEALTH. 81 

shape and powers of a legislative body, than the deputies pakt 
of the freemen, fully alive to the usurpations of the ' — * — ' 
ma^'istrates, " conceived ei'reat danger to the state, for mand a 

"" . . . n % 1 111 • • body of 

tvant of positive Icai'S, and demanded that a commission, laws. 
both clerical and lay, should " frame a body of laws, in 
resemblance to a Magna Cliariar ^ The " wisest rulers 
of New England would have preferred not to have been 
tied up so strictly to the ohservance of particular laivs ;''^ 
but the freemen, having enjoyed a taste of Puritan 
Equity, were not to be put off'. Accordingly, commit- 
tees of elders and magistrates sat annually for some 
years, from time to time reporting laws, as emergencies 
arose, which received the sanction of the general court. 
Fortunately for the oligarchy, the deputies had little or 
no voice in these deliberations. Ignorance of law, or 
some feeling of general incompetency, restrained them 
from actively taking part in committees, whose reports 
were sanctified by the cooperation of the elders. But 
their general wishes were, in the main, understood, and 
much was yielded to their English prejudices. The trial 
by jury, established by Woden himself, and confirmed by 
the great charter of King John, was reluctantly adopted 
as a fundamental principle in the new system of laws. 
The commonwealth was also divided into counties, grand- I64i. 
juries were regularly established, and subordinate county 
courts were erected, composed partly of magistrates and 
partly of freemen. But the county courts thus created 
interfered but little with the extraordinary jurisdiction of 
the court of assistants. This court still retained original 
and exclusive jurisdiction in all cases of divorce, and in 
all criminal cases " extending to life, member, or banish- 
ment." It sat as a court of appeal from the county 

' Winthrop's .Journal. 2 Hubbard. 



8!2 THE PURITAN COMMONWEALTH. 

courts, and thus continued to Lc the expounder of Puri- 
tan Jurisprudence. It is true, that appeals lay, in some 
cases, from its decisions to the general court ; hut these 
were, for the most part, where only a bare majority was 
in favor of convicting" in capital trials. The original 
jurisdiction of the general court seems to have been 
chiefly confined to the delinqencies of the magistrates, 
though the elders thought even this an unwarrantable 
assumption of power. "We do not find," declared the 
sacred college, in 1644^, " that power of judicature is 
granted to the freemen, or deputies in the general court, 
either by patent, or the elections of the people, or by any 
laws of the country." ' But though the court of assist- 
ants was confirmed in its judicial usurpations, and though 
the criminal code set forth by the commission was severe 
in the extreme, the freemen, on the whole, gained by 
their timely outcries. They exchanged uncertainties for 
certainties, and the internal administration of justice 
1648. became complete and systematic ; and in the same year 
in which the Puritan Church promulgated her " platform 
of discipline," the several reports of the commission were 
collected together, ratified by the general court, and made 
public.^ 

We have said that the freemen, having drunk at the 
fount of Puritan Equitij^ clamored for a Magna Charta. 
The great charter of King John merits the title it bears, 
chiefly because it protected every individual of the nation 
in the free enjoyment of life, liberty, and property.^ It 
was this protection, then, that the freemen sought in 
their anomalous situation. Their lives, liberties, and prop- 
erty were held by uncertain tenures ; and since the char- 
ter granted no authority either to take life, or to restrain 

1 See Sav. Winthrop, vol. ii. p. ^ Hutchinson. 
205. 3 Bl. Com. vol. iv. p. 417. 



THE PURITAN COMMONWEALTH. 83 

liberty, or to control individual property ; since the police part 
system authorized therein was intended not for the free- ^ — v — ' 
men or stockholders of the company, but for their em- 
ployees and servants residing out of the kingdom on a 
distant plantation ; since they had, by their own act, 
removed themselves out of the reach of their sovereign's 
protection, and, by abusing his kindness, had forfeited his 
favor; since, by renouncing their rightful allegiance, they 
had sold themselves to the slavery of Puritanism, which 
ruled them through their fears, and their hopes for this 
world and the next, with a rod of iron ; all these con- 
siderations rendered a Magna Cliarta indispensable to 
their security. Can we read aright the lesson taught by 
this remarkable scene ] Can we truly apprehend the 
moral, shining forth in this clamor for a great charter, 
by men who had forsaken all that ought to be most dear 
upon earth, at the beck of a false religion % Are New 
Englanders capable of giving full credit to the truth, that 
civil and religious liberty were enjoyed in England, when 
they were not only forbidden, but were ignored, on the 
shores of Massachusetts Bay] 

One branch of the New England Magna Cliarta^ The crim- 
which Puritanism vouchsafed to "the inferior sort," was of the Pmi- 
a definite code of criminal law. This code had no anal- 
ogies, either in the laws of England or the spirit of 
Christianity. On the contrary, its animus and tone were 
confessedly Mosaic. It was characterized by a san- 
guinary severity. It allowed torture, in cases where a 
convicted felon was suspected of having confederates ; 
and it punished with death, idolatry, witchcraft, blas- 
phemy, murder, bestiality, sodomy, adultery, man-steal- 
ing, perjury in capital cases with intent to take life, 
conspiracy, rebellion, cursing or smiting of their parents 
by children, rebellion against their parents by children 



84- THE PURITAN COMMONWEALTH. 

CHAP, over sixteen years of age, and ra})e. High treason, 
^"--r — ' " the highest civil crime wliich any man can possibly 
conmiit," it will be seen, was ignored. In 1652, arson 
was made a capital felony, on account of its frequent 
occurrence ; and in 1678, half a century after the trans- 
fer of the charter, and thirty years after the murder of 
Charles the First, the general court, stimulated by a 
sense of danger, acknowledged that it was the duty of 
all good subjects to provide for the safety of the person, 
crown, and dignity of their sovereign, and added treason 
to the list of capital offences. In crimes of a less 
heinous nature, the penalties inflicted by the Puritan 
code had, in all possible cases, their Levitical arche- 
types.i 

The mode of inflicting death for these various oflfences, 
we believe, was not specified by law, and, in some cases, 
the magistrates improved upon the terrible practice of 
Israel. In 1681, a negro, who had been convicted of 
arson, was publicly burned alive in Boston. One other 
instance only do we know of this fearful retribution in 
Massachusetts, and this was long after the Puritan Com- 
monwealth had ceased to exist.^ But who of us can tell 
how often power may have been abused, during the sway 
of an irresponsible oligarchy ? Who can set bounds to 
the follies of religious fanaticism ? When we consider 
that, in the early condition of " the Old Bay State," 
Puritanism nmzzled the press, and sealed the lips of its 
victims and enemies, on the plea of quelling sedition ; 
when we reflect that it is only by peeping behind the cur- 
tain, through the forbidden pass of private journals and 
manuscripts, never meant for the public eye, and which, 

• Hutchinson, vol. i. p. 388, n. Charlestown, was burned, for poi- 
2 In 1749, Phillis, colored ser- soning her master, 
vant of Captain John Codman, of 



THE PURITAN COMMONWEALTH. 85 

by accident, merely escaped the flames, that we can catch part 
a ghmpse of the true moral machinery of this singular ^ — . — ' 
system ; when we think of the nature of the deeds that 
Puritanism was not only capable of doing in public, but 
of glorying in as a meritorious ground for Divine favor, 
we surely shall be excused for shrugging our shoulders if 
told that it has a right to the reputation of innocence 
until proved guilty. 

Besides the several crimes above named, others were 
made capital on a second or third conviction. In 1647, 
a law was passed, banishing, on pain of death, Jesuits, or 
" any ecclesiastical persons ordained by the authority of 
the See of Rome." In the same year, burglary was 
made capital on a third conviction. In 165£, the pen- 
alty for the denial of the canonical books of the Old and 
New Testaments was made banishment or death, on a 
second conviction, at the discretion of the magistrates. 
Thus, burglary was considered a lesser crime than liberty 
of conscience ! 

The credit, for this sanguinary code of criminal law, 
belongs to the elders ; and that It would have been more 
sanguinary had it depended upon them alone, is a startling 
fact. The hand of the civil magistrate struck six from 
the list of capital offences reported by Mr. Cotton, among 
which were profaning "the Sabbath," reviling the governor 
or the standing council, and incest within the Levitical 
degrees.^ We must, therefore, refer much of the severity 
of the criminal law to the elders, whose ideas were 
founded, not in the study of the science, not In the 
knowledge of the human heart, not on the real wants of 
the state, but were derived from a wrong-headed fanati- 
cism, which refused to look beyond the pages of the 

^ Hutchinson, vol. i. p. 390, n. 



S6 THE PURITAN COMMONWEALTH. 

01(1 Testament, regardless of mutations and circum- 
stances. Yet the sanguinary character of the Puritan 
laws has been made a subject for panegyi'ic ; and Ban- 
croft, with great ingenuity, attributes it to a concern for 
the purity of the marriage bed, that adultery was visited 
with death ! More modest arguments in behalf of the 
Puritan lawgivers have urged, that their criminal code 
was more humane than that of England, because the 
number of its capital crimes was smaller. But this posi- 
tion cannot be maintained. The great number of felonies 
in England grew up gradually, to supply the supposed 
wants of a populous kingdom. As wealth increased, 
further security for property was found necessary ; and 
as vice and crime continually advanced with civilization, 
new checks were indispensable as new temptations were 
multiplied. But the Puritan Commonwealth, in all the 
bloom of its youth, and the strength of its boasted vir- 
tue, promulgated, on the instant, a code of criminal law, 
whose sanguinary spirit could only be exceeded by its ille- 
gality. 

The peculiarity of the Puritan law, as we have before 
intimated, was its attempt to graft upon Christian civili- 
zation the abrogated statutes of the Hebrew Common- 
wealth. As lawfully appointed agents, to enforce the 
laws which Divinity had given, the magistrates claimed a 
consecrated office, and considered themselves responsible 
alone to the Supreme Judge and Lawgiver. The same 
principle was even asserted among the democratic pilgrims 
of Plymouth ; and the peoj)le of that hardy race were 
taught to behold in their magistrates, " not the ordina- 
riness of their persons, but God's ordinance for their 
good." ^ Thus, this favored class in the Puritan Com- 

1 Robinson's Letter, Morton's Memorial. 



THE PURITAN COMMONWEALTH. 87 

monwealtli made themselves a law to the freemen, or 
rather made their private fantasies assume the shape and 
terror of laws. The two tables of moral law, containing 
man's duty towards God and his duty towards his neigh- 
bor, they reasoned, with partial truth, are binding upon 
humanity wherever it wanders. Uttered by the voice of 
Jehovah, written with his own finger, and termed the 
Covenant, man, in every age and clime, is bound to their 
faithful observance. It needs no legislation to place the 
stone tables at the head of all codes of law, for they are 
obligatory alike on Christian and Pagan, and cannot be 
violated with impunity. Thus beholding in the moral 
law of Israel, not the seeds which were to bud forth 
and blossom under, the influence of Christianity, but only 
ten distinct commands, as rigid and unexpansive as the 
marble letters in which they were written, the magis- 
trates held, that, whether they assumed the form of Eng- 
lish statutes or not, they were obligatory upon the Puri- 
tan Commonwealth, and should be enforced by the arm 
of the civil power. 

Roger Williams first took the exception, that, in 
breaches of the first table, the magistrates were power- 
less ; that they had no right to interfere between God 
and his creature ; and that their legitimate authority was 
confined to the oversight of man's duty towards his 
neighbor. But this, the first gleam of religious liberty 
in the Puritan Commonwealth, was immediately ob- 
scured ; and, at a general court, both elders and magis- i635. 
trates pronounced such opinions "to be erroneous and 
very dangerous," and Williams's " call to a church " in 
Salem was adjudged, in consequence, " a great contempt 
of authority." The banishment of this enthusiast did 
not, by any means, put to rest the waking principle he 
had roused ; nor did the manner in which the magis- 



88 THE PURITAN COMMONWEALTH. 

CHAP, trates exercised their authority, tend to check the " inor- 
* — y — ' dinate love of Hberty." His persecution gained him 
many disciples; and the question of the first table con- 
tinued a mooted point in Puritan jurisprudence, down 
to the synod of 164<7, in which, after much debate, 
it was decided by the elders, that the civil magistrate 
is " ciistos utrmsque tabulos^' and has full power to com- 
pel their observance, so far as respects the outward 
man.' 

This decision ratified the inquisitorial authority, which, 
since the transfer of the corporation, had been usurped 
by the court of assistants, and, in the exercise of which, 
they had respected neither the charter nor the statutes of 
England, neither liberty of person nor freedom of con- 
science. Deluded by a fanaticism, which taught that 
private reasoning was but little removed from inspiration ; 
breaking away from the easy yoke of the church, to sur- 
render their whole being to the iron slavery of Puritan- 
ism, Christianity, as they endeavored to mould it, was 
only blackness and darkness and tempest. Thou shalt 
have no other God but me, declares the decalogue ; and 
Familists, Anabaptists, and Quakers, violate this law, 
added the elders, because they are not under our Cove- 
nant. Nay, enter in, and possess this pleasant land, and 
drive out by fraud and violence the idolatrous natives, 
who worship an unknown God.^ Thou shalt not worship 
any graven image, continues the decalogue, nor the 
likeness of any thing in heaven above, or in the earth 
beneath, or in the waters under the earth. And, reasoned 
the elders, is not the sign of the cross in baptism an 
idolatrous superstition \ Nay, may we lawfully live 
under a banner, upon whose folds is emblazoned the 

' Winthrop's Journal. Hubbard. ~ Ibid. 



THE PURITAN COMMONWEALTH. 89 

cross ? Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath Day, pakt 
said the Lord to stubborn Israel; I have sanctified the ^ — '■ — 
seventh day, and it shall be holy in your eyes. And this 
commandment the Puritan Commonwealth incorporated 
with the very essence of its Christianity. But though the 
seventh was the consecrated day of the Levitical Law, its 
sanctity was extracted by Puritanism, and infused into 
the first. Sunday, the Lord's Day, the great festival of 
the Catholic Church, was clad in the gloomy habili- 
ments of the Sabbath of Israel. The gathering of our 
own sticks on the Sabbath Day, said the Ipswich assem- 
bly of elders, it is lawful to punish with death ; but the 1644. 
theft of our neighbor's sticks on the ordinary days of the 
week, may be visited with a pecuniary mulct.^ 

Such, in brief, were the laws of the Puritan Common- 
wealth; and it is only necessary to add, that, in those 
cases where no express law was provided, the elders 
declared that the magistrates were to be governed only 
by the Word of God, or, in other language, by their con- 
struction of it. It is useless to disguise the absurdity, 
and, at the same time, the illegality of such a system of 
laws. It never was intended by the charter that the 
assistants should sit as a court of justice, or that the 
company should erect a legislature. Far less was it con- 
templated that the company should resort to Mount Sinai, 
in order to perfect its statute-book. Strictly speaking, 
the legislation of the commonwealth was treasonable, and 
every capital 'punishment inflicted under its laivs was 
murder. On the accession of William III., when the 
general court debated whether the charter he oflfered 
Massachusetts should be accepted, it was openly declared, 
that the old charter was defective, since it gave no potver 



I Winthrop's Journal. Hubbard. 
8* 



90 THE PURITAN COMMONWEALTH. 

CHAP, to talce life in capital cases} This was a bold statement, 
Nii^-y^ when we consider what the Puritan Commonwealth had 
done under the protection of this same old tattered parch- 
ment, which had required repeated patching and mending 
to enable it to survive the contests between the oligarchy 
and the freemen. It might have been added, that not in 
one single place did the charter give to the assistants their 
favorite title of magistrates. 
The moral Since the ultimate aim of all human government is to 

influence of /» i • i • ii 

the Puritan sccurc the greatest amount of happmess, and smce all 
municipal law is but the " rule of moral conduct," it 
may be proper, before we conclude, to ascertain how far 
the government we have imperfectly described answered 
the end for which it was established. The leading men 
of the commonwealth were gentlemen of liberal educa- 
tion, and of unblemished lives ; nor was the title of good- 
man, the right of every honest freeman, a mere empty 
courtesy. Can the same be said of the great body of 
the people ? Had Puritanism sufficient vitality, we will 
not say to increase, but even to preserve the morality 
of the people % 

The Puritan, from the beginning, greedily imbibed 
certain theological errors, which are fatal to the cause of 
morality and virtue, and which brought forth their proper 
fruits in the Puritan Commonwealth. " Doth the favor 
of God depend wholly upon our perfect walking ? " was 
the question arrogantly asked by the self-constituted saints 
of Massachusetts. Did Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob never 
enjoy protection, when " found to be out of the way ] " ^ 
The regicides of the old world, and the homicides of the 
new, were the same community of the elect, testifying 
their love to God by the destruction of his enemies. 

^ Neal. 2 ggg Winthrop's Letter, Hazard, vol. i. p. 514. 



THE PURITAN COMMONWEALTH. 91 

Their rebellious consciences were quieted by these com- 
fortable fallacies, whenever a period of adversity awak- 
ened them to reflection. For, tJie elect of God^ "although 
they may, through the temptation of Satan and the world, 
incur GocVs disijleasure and grieve his Holy Sjnrit^ have 
their hearts hardened^ their consciences tvounded^ and hurt 
and scandalise others^ yet they are and shall he kept^ hy 
the potver of God, through faith unto salvation"^ Such 
was the basis of public morals furnished by the church 
to the commonwealth. Can we wonder, when we read 
of complaints that the butcherly expeditions against the 
Indians were " most shamefully discouraged, because the 
army ivas too much under a covenant of loorTcs ? " Could 
any possibility, short of a miracle, have kept sweet and 
clear an atmosphere so loaded with the seeds of moral 
impurity \ 

Puritanism did not emigrate with spotless garments. 
The fleet of Winthrop was often the scene of fantastic 
and severe punishment ; and Hutchinson has immor- 
talized several culprits, who, when the commonwealth 
was " but just come to its birth," were whipped, fined, 
pilloried, and even banished, for such crimes as theft, 
drunkenness, adultery, and profane swearing. He adds, 
that a great number of similar cases might be stated. 
We will not mention the repeated perpetration of those 
crimes, which " the laws of England, with peculiar mod- 
esty, assure us are not fit to be named." ^ One needs 
only to examine the public records, or to turn carelessly 
over the leaves of the early annals of the commonwealth, 
to become assured of the fact, that neither the restraints 
of religion nor fear of the laws were sufficient to pre- 
vent the commission of the foulest crimes. A nmlti- 

1 Confession of Faith in 1680, Mather. 2 Chalmers. 



92 THE PURITAN COMMONWEALTH. 

plicity of penal laws, always a sign of the growth of the 
evils 'they are intended to check,^ distinguished the Puri- 
tan statute-book ; and we learn that the commonwealth 
had been in existence scarcely ten years, when, by the 
advice of the elders, the general court ordered a sol- 
emn fast to be observed, on account of "the foul sins" 
which were appearing among the inhabitants.^ The first 
grand-jury of the commonwealth presented, in 1635, one 
hundred offenders ; and Hubbard, remarking upon this 
singular fact, declares that, had all " the following juries 
been as quicksighted, it might have prevented a great 
number of evils." Doubtless, the austere annalist was 
correct ; for, " as people increased so sin abounded, and 
especially the sin of uncleanness." ^ Gambling, forgery, 
and fornication, were all made subjects for penal laws, ere 
the first synod of the elders had settled the articles of 
their faith ; and sixteen years had scarcely elapsed from 
the transfer of the charter, when it was found necessary 
to erect houses of correction in every county, in order 
" to redress many misdemeanors and evil practices daily 
increasing.^ 

Nor were these " evil practices " confined to the old 
and hardened, who hovered in the rear of the Puritan 
Pilgrims like the rabble which follows the train of an 
army. Those whose beards had scarcely grown, whose 
only associations had been with the devout and learned 
from their earliest years, not infrequently evinced symp- 
toms of the general disorder. In 16^4-, " two of our 
ministers' sons, about twenty years of age," students in 
Harvard College, were convicted of burglary, and igno- 
miniously punished.^ Winthrop, blessed with a son 
who, perhaps, was the brightest ornament of New Eng- 

1 Dc Maistre. 2 Winthrop's Journal. 3 Jbid. 

* Colony Laws. 5 Sav. Winthrop, vol. ii. p. i66.J 



THE PURITAN COMMONWEALTH. 93 

land Puritanism, g-enerously abstained from writing the part 
names of these youthful culprits, even in his private ^^r — - 
journal. They were the first burglars punished in the 
Puritan Commonwealth, and it was not until three years 
after, that this crime became known to its statute-book. 
But this was not all. Attracted by the vociferous sanc- 
tity of Puritanism, "sundry gentlemen of quality" in 
England were early in the habit of sending over their 
unruly children to Massachusetts, in order that whole- 
some discipline and correct example might " prevent 
their extravagant and riotous courses." It was a noble 
aspiration, this desire to make the New World a school 
of virtue and morality for the old. But the event 
proved how totally inadequate Puritanism was to exercise 
so important a vocation. These youthful prodigals found 
companions equally extravagant in the streets and alleys 
of pious Boston ; so that the general court, because of 
" the reproach of the country" was obliged to interfere, 
and to pass a law inflicting penalties upon such persons as 1647. 
encouraged them in "their riotous courses."^ 

It would be easy to summon forth from their obscurity 
many examples, in support of the preceding remarks, 
which were bewailed by the wise and good in the Puri- 
tan Commonwealth. But we have space only to give a 
general outline. It may be also argued, that it is not 
among the emigrants themselves that we should look for 
the moral influence of Puritanism. Many brought over 
their vices with them, contracted under the institutions of 
the Old World. But on the virgin soil of Massachu- 
setts, where Popery had not yet intruded, and where 
debauchery was all unknown, where, in short, the " true 
churches of Christ" had full scope to develop the perfect 

^ Colony Laws. 



94* THE PURITAN COMMONWEALTH. 

CHAP. Christian character, surely the second and third genera- 
— r-^ tions of the inhabitants should have exhibited a pleasing- 
contrast. But how was the fact 1 In 1660, suicides 
became so frequent, that the general court passed a law 
ordering that the body of every felo de se should be 
denied Christian burial ; and that, after being interred in 
some common highway, " a cart-load of stones should be 
laid on the grave as a brand of infamy, and as a warn- 
ing to others to beware of the like damnable practices." ^ 
This act was, in a few years, followed by one of equal 
significance. In 1665, the general court, reciting that 
tlie crime of fornication was increasing, to the great dis- 
honor of God and their profession of his holy name, 
empowered the proper court, when one of the guilty par- 
ties was a freeman, to add disfranchisement to the penal- 
ties of fine, whipping, and compulsory marriage, already 
provided by law.^ In I67O, tlie laws against gambling 
were revived, because " the great sin of gaming increas- 
eth within the jurisdiction, to the great dishonor of God 
and corrupting of youth." ^ But intemperance was the 
prevailing vice of the people. Spirits of all kinds were 
abundant and cheap ; and wines especially, at first im- 
ported without duty, were plentier than in England.* It 
is but justice to say, tliat the elders and magistrates dis- 
couraged the general use of these luxuries, by setting the 
example of self-denial. Yet it seems that they soon came 
into general use. The earliest duties levied in the com- 
monwealth were small imposts upon " wines and strong 
waters," which proves that they were among the prom- 
inent articles of trade ; and Johnson mentions the vint- 
ners of Boston as being, at an early period, a class 
of very prosperous tradesmen. So early as 1611, the 

^ Colony Laws. 2 ji,ij, 3 Jbid. ^ Johnson. 



^ THE PURITAN COMMONWEALTH. 9^ 

faithful journalist, Winthrop, records it as an extraor- 
dinary fact, that, at " a great training of twelve hundred 
men" in that year at Boston, not one man was drunk, 
" though there was plenty of wine and strong beer in the 
town." This sobriety was so remarkable, that though 
these men were under the restraints of military discipline, 
it was considered worthy of special notice. If any hopes 
were excited by this unusual exhibition of temperance, 
they were destined to be transitory. Four years later, 1645. 
the importations had so increased, that it was determined 
to derive from them a revenue. Accordingly, the general 
court laid an impost of ten shillings sterling upon every 
butt of Spanish wine that should thereafter be brought 
into the commonwealth. But, notwithstanding fhis tariff", 
sixteen hundred hogsheads were imported the follow- 
ing year, in English bottoms.^ The government were 
amazed. " It might truly have been said, as of old, in 
the time of Constantine, ' hodie venenum effusmn est in 
ecclesiam.' " ^ The ordinary penalties for drunkenness, 
such as the whipping-post and the pillory, were perceived 
to be utterly inadequate to neutralize such increasing 
temptations, and, as a last remedy, it was proposed to 
remove the evil by rendering it impossible. " Foras- 
much," declared the general court, "as drunkenness is 1646. 
a vice to be abhorred of all nations, especially of those 
who hold out and profess the gospel of Jesus Christ, 
and seeing any strict law will not prevail unless the 
cause be taken away," it is therefore ordered, that no 
person shall sell any wine under a quarter cask, wnless 
he shall be licensed by the court.^ But this, and other 
cliecks of a like nature, proved utterly inefficacious ; and 
the traffic continued to increase with the population, until 

* Winthrop's Journal. Hubbard. 3 Colony Laws. 
2 Hubbard. 



96 THE PURITAN COMMONWEALTH. 



the country was filled with " the commodity, to the over- 
flowing of luxury and other evils." ^ 

The preliminary symptoms of general decay were pre- 
cipitated by superstition. While laws against profanity 
and " sabbath-breaking " were multiplying, the wrath of 
Heaven seemed to be gathering over the Puritan Com- 
monwealth. Early in 1668, a bright meteor appeared 
in the horizon, in form like a spear. "It stood stoop- 
ing, one end pointing towards the setting of the sun, and 
moved dowTiwards, little by little, until it disappeared." 
" Visce per coeliim concurrere acies, rutilcmtia arma, et 
siibito mihium igne colliicere tonplum.'' ^ The star, 
which Josephus says hung like a sword over Jerusalem, 
just befcfre its destruction, could scarcely have excited 
more dismay. It was now observed, that the youth of 
the commonwealth had degenerated very much from " the 
1670. strictness of their fathers ; " and letters missive were 
sent by the government to the elders of all the towns in 
the jurisdiction, apologizing for so unusual an interfer- 
ence with their duties, but urging them " to be very 
diligent and careful" to catechize and instruct the people 
under their charge. Yet a few years later, and the sub- 
ject assumed a more alarming aspect. " The people 
began to grow intolerably licentious in their morals." ^ 
Pride, contention, profane swearing, drunkenness, litiga- 
tion, sabbath-breaking, and neglect of family worship, 
were greatly on the increase. For the first time, laws 
were found necessary for the punishment of corrupt 
juries, and for the enlargement of the rights of creditors 
against their debtors. Commerce and trade were creat- 
ing a love of money, and Puritanism was incapable of 



' Hubbard. • 3 Neal. 

'•^ Tacitus, Hist. Lib. v. sec. 13. 



THE PURITAN COMMONWEALTH. 97 

modifying- the evils connected therewith.^ So rapidly part 
were people emancipating themselves from " the strict- - — v — ' 
ness of their fathers," that nothing but the law, rigorous 
to the last, prevented a general falling off in the Puritan 
Church. " Discouragements," wrote Mr. Willard to Mr. 
Mather, during the administration of Andros, " increase 
upon the hearts of the ministers, hij reason that a licen- 
tious people take the advantage of a liberty to zvithhold 
maintenance from them.'' ^ 

Such indications of moral disease, accompanied by 
pestilence and war, by losses in agriculture and trade, 
and by the menacing position of the Mother Country, 
excited gloomy forebodings. In 1679, the general court 
assembled the elders in synod at Boston, and proposed 
questions touching the causes and remedy of the accumu- 
lating evils. This synod, called from its character the 
Reforming Synod, declared that, " besides a great and 
visible decay of the power of godliness among many pro- 
fessors in their churches," many vices, " especially pride, 
intemperance, and worldly-mindedness, began to bud forth 
amongst them." The elders suggested, as a remedy for 
these evils, that the leading men in the commonwealth 
should reform their lives, for the sake of the example to 
the lower classes ; and, to prevent future apostasy, pro- 
posed the renewal of the Covenant by the churches, and 
a revision of their old platform. 

It cannot be a matter of surprise, that the recom- 
mendations of the Reforming Synod failed to produce 
the wished-for effect. So far from it, the general court, 
by a special ordinance, in 1689, reciting "the corruption 
of manners " and " the apostasies and degeneracies of 
the people," directed that the laws against vice, and all 

' See Dunton's Memoirs, 2 Mass. 2 Hutchinson, vol. i. p. 320, n. 
Hist. Coll. vol. ii. p. 100. 

9 



98 THE PURITAN COMMONWEALTH 

CHAr. manner of profaneness and debauchery, " be faithfully 
' — ^ — ' and vigorously put in execution, particularly the laws 
against blasj)heniy, cursing-, profane swearing, lying, 
unlawful gaming, sabbath-breaking, idleness, drunken- 
ness, uncleanness, and all the enticements and nurseries 
of such impieties." Three years after, the new charter 
arrived, and the Puritan Commonwealth ceased to exist. 

Thus, that " frightful dissolution " of morals, which 
reacted upon Puritanism in England, had its counterpart 
in Massachusetts. True, royalty did not gild vice in the 
Puritan Commonwealth, nor did letters encourage the 
spirit of licentiousness. But without the splendor of the 
one, and unembellished by the other, immorality stalked 
forth in the land in all its nakedness and deformity. 



Part II. 

Moral Character of the Government of the Puritan State — As illustrated 
by its treatment of the Aborigines — The Pequods — The Murder of 
John Oldham — Leads to an Invasion of the Pequod Territory — The 
Pequods seek Alliance with the Narragansetts — Who enter into a Treaty 
with Massachusetts — Total Destruction of the Pequods — Fate of the 
Leaders of this Expedition an Instance of Divine Retribution — The 
Narragansetts — Intrigues of the Molicgans — Defeat and Capture of 
Miantonimo — His Fate — The Narragansetts seek the Aid of Massa- 
chusetts — But without Success — The Treatment of their Deputation — 
Desperate Condition of this Tribe — A New Treaty extorted from 
them — Their Lukewarmness in its Observance a Cause of Alarm — 
Preparations for War — Destruction of the Narragansetts — Heroism of 
Canonchct — The Wampanoags — Treachery and Death of Sausamon 
— Which leads to War — Fail of Philip — The Tarranteens — The Puri- 
tans seek the Alliance of the Mohawks — Defeat of the Allies — Ter- 
rible Effects of the Puritan Wars. 

The Puritan Commonwealth, designed for the avowed 
purpose of establishing and perpetuating a })ure religion, 



AND THE ABORIGINES, 99 

Avas essentially an ecclesiastical state. Its citizens were part 
all, in one sense, the liigh-priests of its faith, and none '-■'^ — ' 
might presnme to meddle with its politics, who were not 
members of the sacred order of the freemen. As the lesser 
is comprehended in the greater ; as faithful Christians 
must necessarily be faithful citizens, whether living under 
democratic or autocratic forms of government ; so it 
was reasoned that if the commonwealth were evolved 
from the church, political disease would lessen, and per- 
haps vanish away. By making the church political, it 
was expected that the state would become religious. 
Were Christians (/ood, and the church catholic, doubtless 
love of God and man would supplant the terrors of the 
law, and, by perfecting obedience, would do away with 
constraint. But as all political organizations imply hu- 
man error and weakness, so, if we suppose a condition 
of things where error and weakness are not, we suppose 
necessarily therewith a state where government is need- 
less. 

The Puritan Pilgrims founded their civil structure on jioiaichar- 
the idea that they were saints, and they intended to the govem- 

t • I Tin* 1 • ment of the 

render its glory perpetual, by allowmg none but samts to Puritan 
administer its affairs. The passport to the smallest priv- 
ileges of citizenship was the Puritan Covenant. How 
well founded were the expectations of the designers of 
the commonwealth, we now propose to consider. Surely, 
if any human contrivance was ever ushered into existence 
under circumstances more favorable to the end contem- 
plated, we have yet to learn how and when. If Puritan- 
ism were a fit political teacher for mankind, either by 
precept or example ; if the policy it has suggested is 
worthy of imitation ; if the commonwealth it can animate 
may justly claim our admiration ; we shall certainly find 
these desiderata in their highest excellence in Puritan 



100 



THE PURITAN COMMONWEALTH 



1653. 



1666. 



As illus- 
trated by 
its treat- 
ment of 
the abo- 
rigines. 



Massachusetts. Our space forbids us more than to allude 
to the general character acquired by the commonwealth, 
as a separate and independent power. In her treaties 
1652. with the French ; ^ in her trade with buccaneers ; ^ in 
unhesitatingly violating the articles of the Puritan Con- 
federacy, contrary to petitions " tendered by many pen- 
sive hearts," when " the dear saints of God " at New 
Haven were threatened by the Dutch ; ^ in maintain- 
ing her intriguing agents in England with those funds 
which had been intrusted to her to evangelize the In- 
dians ; ^ in sending privateers from her prayerful havens, 
to prey upon the enemies of Charles II., though none a 
greater enemy than herself ; ^ in these and similar trans- 
actions, the Puritan Commonwealth acquired notoriety 
in the Old and New World. But her doings with the 
Aborigines speak more forcibly than them all, and, there- 
fore, we shall now confine our remarks to this department 
of her history. 

The oriffin of the North American Indians still re- 
mains an unsolved problem. A reverend historian of 
New England says, that it is not possible to ascertain the 
point, " unless the astrologers can find it in the stars, or 
that it can be gathered from the motion of the celestial 
bodies that lighted them hither."^ But he cites the 
opinion of another writer, which he thinks carries with 
it the greatest probability of truth, and which he com- 
pares to an "oracle of God." " His conceit is, that tvhcn 
the devil was put out of his throne in the other part of 
the world, and that the mouth of all his oracles zvas 
stopped in Europe, Asia, and Africa, he seduced a com- 



^ See Hazard, vol. i. p. 502. 
^ Hutchinson. 

3 Hazard, vol. ii. pp. 270-283. 

4 Ibid. pp. 147, 175, 176, 232. 



5 See 2 Mass. Hist. Coll. vol. viii. 
p. 109. 

6 Hubbard. 



AND THE ABORIGINES. 101 

immj of silly turetches to follow Ms conduct into this p^^t 
unknown jpart of the loorlcl^ ivhere he might he hid^ and " — * — ' 
not he disturhed in the idolatrous and abominahle^ or 
rather diaholical service,, he expected from those his fol- 
lowers'' The sober indorsement of this opinion by the 
Puritan historian, tells, more forcibly than the words 
themselves, how a false Christianity misled its sincere 
disciples. Faith and hope are great virtues, but a greater 
than these is charity. " Charity is not easily puffed up, 
and thinketh no evil." But this prince of Christian 
graces scarcely governed the Puritan Commonwealth in 
its dealings with the helpless Indians. Hubbard was not 
alone in attributing to them a diabolical agency ; it was 
the common idea of the " elect saints " of Massachusetts, 
and it encouraged them to commit outrages which have 
rarely a parallel in history. 

Although famine and pestilence, those dreadful mes- 
sengers of Providence, whose mission had been foretold 
in Europe by " the disappearance of a blazing star in the 
west," had opened in New England a special road for the 
advent of civilization, yet the results of their visitation 
were by no means satisfactory to that scrupulous sect, 
whose consciences were too tender to allow them either 
to obey their sovereign, or to continue loyal to the 
Church. " They deemed themselves commissioned, like 
Joshua of old, to a work of blood ; " and they sought an 
excuse for their uniform harshness to the Indians in 
those dreadful tragedies which were enacted, far back in 
primeval ages, on the shores of the Red Sea and the 
fertile plains of Palestine, and in which Almighty Wis- 
dom saw fit to make the descendants of Israel the instru- 
ments of his wrath. So early as 1632, the Indians 
" began to quarrel with the English about the bounds of 

9 * 



102 THE PURITAN COMMONWEALTH 

their land ; " ^ for the Puritan Pilgrims, maintaining 
that " the whole earth is the Lord's garden," and, there- 
fore, the peculiar property of his saints, admitted the 
natural right of the aborigines to so much soil only as 
they could occupy and improve. In 1633, this principle 
was made to assume the shape of law ; and, " for set- 
tling the Indians' title to lands in the jurisdiction," the 
general court ordered, that "what lands any of the 
Indians have 2yossessed and improved^ hj suhdidng the 
same, they have just right unto, according to that in 
Genesis, ch. i. 28, and ch. ix. 1."^ Thus the argument 
used was, vacuum domicilium, cedi't occupanti: and, by 
an application of the customs of civilization to the wil- 
derness, it was held, that all land not occupied by the 
Indians as agriculturalists, " lay open to any that could 
or would improve it." ^ Accordingly, when Roger Wil- 
liams, with honest indignation, compared the interest of 
the Indians in the soil to that of the nobility and gentry 
of England in their parks and preserves, it was replied, 
that it was not the intention of the patentees to take 
possession of the country by " murther or robbery," but 
only to occupy its void places ; that, if lands were taken 
from the Indians, it was by purchase or consent ; that, 
as the nobility enjoyed larger territories than most men, 
so they did greater service to the state, and that their 
parks and preserves were employed as well for timber 
and the nourishment of tame animals as for wild beasts ; 
that the towns and settlements of the commonwealth did 
not disturb the hunting of the natives, but since they used 
traps, and not hounds, did rather preserve game the fitter 

1 Johnson, b. i. ch. xxv. 3 Savage's Winthrop, vol. i. p. 

'^ Colony Laws. See, also, Haz- 290. 
ard, vol. i. p. 476. 



AND THE ABORIGINES. 103 

for their taking ; that all aggressions on their rights part 
were paid or compensated for ; and that, at all events, a >-^^ 
title to so vast a continent, which consisted only in 
burning it up for pastime, and not in the proper cul- 
tivation of its millions of acres, could not be founded in 
justice.^ 

That civilization is preeminent over nature, few will be 
disposed to question ; the manner in which this superior- 
ity is exercised, is alone open to remark. " Now, it 
seemeth unto me," said Robert Cushman, one of Robin- 
son's disciples, " we ought to endeavor to use the means 
to convert the heathen ; the means cannot be used, unless 
we go to them or they come to us ; our land is full, and 
they cannot come to us ; therefore, as their land is empty, 
we may go to them." ^ How this worthy pilgrim would 
have disposed of the difficulty had the desired lands been 
full, instead of empty, we can only conjecture ; but there 
seems much good sense in his remark. It has been 
the fashion, of late, to assert for the Puritans that they 
regarded European right, resting on discovery, to be a 
Popish doctrine, derived from Alexander VI., and that 
they recognized the justice of the Indian claims. But 
this position cannot be maintained. The rude garden, 
which surrounded the savage wigwam, was alone con- 
sidered as savage property. The boundless landscape, 
Avith its forests, fields, and waters, he was despoiled of, 
on the harsh plea of Christian right. In this way, 
Charlestown, Boston, Dorchester, Salem, Hing-ham, and 
other places, were intruded into by the Puritan Pil- 
grims, without condescending to any inquiry concerning 
the Indian title. They were seized and settled, because 
they were not waving with fields of yellow corn, duly " 

1 Hubbard. 2 Young's Chronicles of the Pilgrims. 



104i THE PURITAN COMMONWEALTH 

CHAP, fenced in with square-cut hawthorne.^ Savage jealousy 
^ — i — ' and savage alarm were easily provoked by such whole- 
sale appropriations ; and perhaps Christianity suffered 
more, in its influence upon the red men, from these than 
any other causes. The settlers of the town of Concord, 
who fairly purchased their lands of the Indians, seldom 
or never had any contests with them.^ Such examples, 
however, were very rare ; for even where lands were 
purchased by the settlers, the consideration paid therefor 
was not seldom inadequate.^ In a letter written by Gov- 
ernor Winslow, in 1676, he declares that the English 
were of a " covetous disposition," and that the Indians, 
when in need, " were easily prevailed upon to part Avith 
their lands." For this reason, the General Court of 
Plymouth made the necks of land, to which the Wampa- 
noags were at last confined, inalienable by them.* For 
similar reasons, in part. Sir Edmund Andros pronounced 
Indian deeds no better than "the scratch of a bear's paw." 
Not only was the consideration therefor too frequently 
inadequate, but, as a matter of equity, the savages could 
not comprehend how the rough outline of a hatchet on a 
shred of parchment, or the rude delineation of a bow and 
arrow, should forever deprive them of the lands of their 
fathers. 

Yet the wrongs suffered by the Indians, in regard to 
the soil, were not the greatest injuries inflicted upon them 
by the Puritan Commonwealth. What shall be said of 
that chiefest enemy of the red man, A\hich destroyed his 
manhood and cursed his existence ? Was he, whose 
'•low and mean diet and fare"^ had always preserved 

' Drake's Old Indian Chron. p. 3 Sec Hazard, vol. ii. p. 93. 

155. I Mass. Hist. Coll. vol. viii. 4 Hubbard's Indian Wars. 
p. 4. Lincoln's Hingham, p. 159. ^ Hubbard. 

*■* I Mass. Hist. Coll. vol. i. p. 
241. 



AND THE ABORIGINES. 105 

him from the lusts of the flesh, was he to be baptized tart 
into the vices of civiHzation by the sanctimonious hand > — v — 
of Puritanism ? The Reforming Synod declares, that 
the Indians were debauched by those calling themselves 
Christians ; and it appears from the Colony Laws, that, 
at first, the general court was accustomed to license the 
sale to them of rum, brandy, strong waters, wine, strong 
beer, cider, and perry. What an array was this for the 
undisciplined appetite of the child of nature ! He could 
not see his evil spirit, Abomacho, lurking in those beau- 
tiful and variegated colors ! He could not realize that 
that intoxicating thrill, which inspired him to dance and 
sing, which seemed to transport his very being, was the 
beginning of his utter perdition ! His doom was sealed. 
Trucking-houses, those sentinel posts of civilization, 
skirted the forests, and the Indians abandoned the chase 
for the pleasures of sense. Family after family dwin- 
dled away into squalid and drunken groups, whose bleared 
eyes, and naked, shivering forms, exhibited a disease more 
fearful in its ravages than the smallpox. Orders were 
passed, from time to time, by the general court, for " the 
prevention of drunkenness among the Indians," but with 
little effect. It was not until 1657 that the general court, 
reciting their debauched condition, and the frequent "mur- 
ders and other outrages " resulting therefrom, recalled all 
outstanding licenses, ordered the immediate demolition of 
the trucking-houses, and forbade the future barter to the 
Indians of strong liquors, under a heavy penalty. But 
the disease had progressed too far to be remediable ; and 
when the Reforming Synod assembled, twenty years later, 
the civilized and praying Indians partook of the general 
immorality.^ 

1 Hubbard. Mather. Colony Laws. 



106 THE PURITAN COMMONWEALTH 



CHAP. The iieioliborina" aborigines of Boston were but the 

II. . . 

^ — r-^ shreds of a great and warlike tribe. Reduced and 

broken by pestilence, they became an easy prey to the 
vices of civilization.^ But the tribes further removed 
from the Puritan settlements preserved their integrity, 
and presented to the lures of artificial life a firm and 
unbroken front. True, a wondrous inferiority in the 
arts of peace and war must have been both felt and 
lamented ; but the kings of the red men were not devoid 
of wisdom, and the civilization that was offered them 
they refused, because it brought in its train the demoral- 
ization of their people. Perhaps, too, some traditions 
lingered among their warriors of the infamous treachery 
of the early English navigators ; and their council-fires 
may have been often animated by the marvellous rela- 
tions of some returned slave, whose only knowledge of 
civilization had been acquired under the lash of a task- 
master, or amid the hoots and the clamor of a curious 
rabble. 
The Pc- Of this class of the New England aborigines, were the 

great tribes of the Pequods, the Narragansetts, the Wam- 
panoags, and the Tarranteens ; great, not as conquerors, 
nor in numbers, but preeminent for their patriotism. They 
were the determined enemies, not of Christianity, but of 
Puritanism. The gospel was exhibited before them, as a 
system which denied the necessity of good works, and 
which made a spiritual abstraction its fundamental prin- 
ciple. They saw that Christianity did not prev^ent its 
believers from wronging the poor, nor from oppressing 
the weak ; and they drew direful conclusions as to its 
probable effects upon their people, from the rapid demor- 
alization of the natives near Massachusetts Bay. The 

1 Sec Hutchinson, vol. i. p. 38, n. and p. 408. Johnson, b. i. ch. 10. 



quods. 



AND THE ABORIGINES. 107 

Pequods, " seated on a brave river " at the easterly end part 
of Long Island Sound/ were " the most warlike of all ^^->^ — ' 
the Indians," and the first to fall victims to the grasping 
policy of the Puritan Commonwealth. Jealousy of the 
neighboring Dutch, and the glowing accounts which had 
reached the English of the fertility of the valley of the 
Connecticut, had long rendered the possession of that 
country an object of desire.^ The Pequods, however, 
avoided intercourse with the white settlements, and roused 
the enmity of avarice by turning away from glass beads, 
and grog, and worthless trinkets.^ But an event which 
happened in 1634', was eagerly seized upon by the Puri- 
tan Commonwealth, to wrest from this tribe a treaty, 
which should enable its citizens to introduce a mutual 
trade, and give them a footing upon the soil. Captain 
John Stone, a man of dissolute character, who had been 
prosecuted for piracy, convicted of adultery, and only 
saved, by a technical blemish in the evidence, from an 
ignominious death, was banished from the Puritan Com- 1633. 
monwealth for abuse of one of the magistrates. He 
was slain in the following year by the Pequods. This 
man provoked his own fate. Outlawed by his own coun- 
trymen, he assumed the character of an adventurer, and, 
in company with a small crew, roamed over the waters 
of New England, trading with the natives. During one 
of these excursions, he arrived at the mouth of tlie River 
Thames, and forcibly seized upon two straggling Pequods 
to serve as his pilots. The outrage was summarily 
revenged by the warriors of the tribe, who, watching 
their opportunity, killed Stone, and rescued his helpless 
captives. But in this affair they neither attempted sub- 
terfuge nor evasion. In the true spirit of chivalry, they 

1 Now called River Thames. 3 Sec Hubbard's Indian Wars, 

2 Bancroft. P- i9- 



108 



THE PURITAN COMMONWEALTH 



Murder 
of John 
Oldham 



CHAP, sent their rude ambassadors to Boston, with rich gifts of 
' — y — ' wampum and furs, to allay the resentment of the Eng-lish. 
The death of the outlaw must have been regarded by his 
countrymen as the abatement of a nuisance, and could 
have caused the rigid Puritans little concern ; but, pre- 
tending indignation where none was entertained, an 
amnesty was offered the Pequods, on condition they 
surrendered the executioners of Stone, would allow the 
English full permission to plant in their lands, and would 
consent, for the future, " to trade with them as their 
friends." This brave tribe, already threatened by the 
Dutch, and its hereditary enemies the Narragansetts, was 
unwilling to add the English to the number of its adver- 
saries. For the sake of peace, therefore, the Pequod 
ambassadors consented to the two latter conditions ; but, 
as for the first, they declared that nearly all the A\'arriors 
who killed Stone were dead of the smallpox ; that their 
powers did not extend so far as to enable then» to deliver 
up the survivors ; but that, " if they were worthy of 
death," they would advise their sachem to surrender them 
into the hands of the I'^iiglisli. The Puritan Ctunmon- 
wealth was satisfied \\ith this arrangemejit. Trade "was 
the chief thing aimed at,"^ and not satisfaction for the 
death of Stone. The valuable concessions obtained by 
this treaty were all that was desired ; and the Pequod 
ambassadors, proud of their dijdomatic achievements, joy- 
fully departed for their home on the banks of the liiver 
Thames. 

This treaty did not prove satisfactory. The English 
found that "no advantage was to be had by any trade" 
with the Pequods, aiul, as a consecpience, little intercourse 
was maintained with them.*'^ Adventurers, however, were 



1 Hubbard's Indian Wars. 



Ibid. p. 27. 



AND THE ABORIGINES. 109 

not wanting, who, throwing off the restraints of civiHza- 
tion, wandered about in boats, from point to point and 
* from river to river, seeking opportunity to barter their 
wares and trinkets for the rich furs and curiously wrought 
wampum of the Indians. Among these traders was one 
John Oklham, an " obstinate and violent man," and of a 
" factious spirit," who had been twice banished from the 1624-5. 
Colony of Plymouth, in " a summary and ignominious 
manner," for " stirring up factions." So furiously did 
he revile us, says Bradford, relating one of these occur- 
rences, that even his own friends were ashamed of his 
outrage. " Upon which we appoint him to pass through 
a guard of soldiers, and every one with a musket to give 
him a blow upon his hinder part, then conveyed hhn to 
the water side, where is a boat ready to carry him away." 
Wherever he makes his abode, wrote the Massachusetts 
Company to Endecott, " all hope of quiet or comfortable 
subsistence " is destroyed.^ Such was the being let loose 
by civilization to prowl among the Indians. His career, 
as might have been expected, was short. In the year 
1636, his vessel was discovered by an English bark in 
the possession of some Indians, near a small isle belong- 
ing to the Narragansetts, still known as Block Island. 
The master of the bark, suspecting that all was not right, 
bore up for the Indians, and, having discharged all his 
fire-arms at them, he ran his bows into their quarter, and 
drove nearly all of them into the sea. On boarding his 
prize, he found the body of her late owner under an old 
sail, with " his head cleft to the brains." 

The death of Oldham, which, from his past life, we 
have the right to conclude was not unprovoked, could 
not be laid at the door of the Pequods. Block Island 



' Letter of the Massachusetts Company, (April, 1629,) to Endecott. 
10 



110 



THE PURITAN COMMONWEALTH 



Leads to 
an invas- 
ion of the 
Pequod 
territory. 



1C36. 
August. 



belonged to the Narragansetts, and there the act was 
consummated. Even the inferior sachems of the Nar- 
ragansetts, wlio contrived and executed the aifair,i must 
have had great provocation, for their tribe was then at 
peace with the Enghsh, and they could not have coolly 
and deliberately planned a murder, which would have 
brought down upon them the terrible anger of the 
whites. However this may be, one would naturally 
suppose that the dozen lives that were sacrificed in recap- 
turing the vessel must have satisfied the justice of the 
English, and have appeased the manes of Oldham. But 
Puritanism measured justice by a singular system of 
ethics ; and, if the saints were bettered in their condition, 
the annihilation of hundreds of the heathen was consid- 
ered a fair equivalent for the death of a single Christian 
outlaw. 

Canonicus and Miantonimo, the great sachems of the 
Narragansetts, disclaimed any participation in the trag- 
edy, and their excuses were accepted by the Puritan 
Commonwealth, on condition that they assisted in reveng- 
ing Oldham's death. The elders and magistrates soon 
after assembled in council, and agreed that "justice 
should be done with all expedition ; " and, ten years 
before the Puritan Pilgrims began to inquire whether 
the aborigines had souls to be saved, an armed expedi- 
tion sailed from the harbor of Boston, on an errand of 
blood. Endecott, the general, received " sanguinary 
orders." He was directed to imi to death the male 
inhabitants of Block Island^ to take captive their wives 
and children^ and to possess himself of their little islet. 
But this was not all. The military forces of the Puritan 
Commonwealth had lately been organized under veteran 



1 Hubb. Ind. Wars. Winthrop. death to the Pcquods ; an error for 
Hutch. Bancroft attributes Oldham's which we are at a loss to account. 



AND THE ABORIGINES. Ill 

commanders, who had served in the wars in Holland, part 
Their musters were frequent, their drilling thorough, and ^ — v — ' 
their equipments complete ; and the whole were placed 
under the direction of a commission, whose powers of 
life and death rendered the system efficient and formid- 
able.' The occasion that now presented itself for com- 
mencing hostilities with the Pequods was too good to 
be lost ; for Block -Island lay near the Pequod country. 
Stone's death had not yet been fully atoned for, and, in 
resisting the trespasses of other marauders, the Indians 
had spilt the white man's blood.^ The pretext was 
plausible, the opportunity tempting ; and though this 
gallant tribe had brokeu no treaty, and violated no 
engagement with the Puritan Commonwealth, Endecott 
was directed, after seizing Block Island, to proceed to the 
Pequod territory, and to demand "the murderers" of the 
English, one thousand fathoms of wampum, and several 
children, the latter to be retained as hostages. If these 
requisitions were resisted, he was ordered to obtain them 
by force. On reaching Block Island, Endecott found forty 
naked Indians, with their bows and arrows, dra\Mi up in 
battle array on the shore, to oppose the landing of his 
steel-clad troops. These he easily routed ; but the woods 
afforded them a ready asylum, and the valor of the Puri- 
tan soldiery was forced to expend itself in burning their 
wigwams, destroying their corn, and staving their canoes. 
Having ravaged Block Island, Endecott sailed for the 
Pequod country, and landed his men without the slightest 
opposition ; although, from the nature of the shore, the 
undertaking would have been hazardous had the Pequods 
" made use of their advantage." But the Indians, a 

' See Sav. Winthrop, vol. i. p. pp. 28, 31, for the kinds of trespass- 
156,11. ing the Pequods were continually 

2 See Hubbard's Indian Wars, subjected to. 



lis THE PURITAN COMMONWEALTH 

CHAP, race proverbial for fidelity in keeping their treaties,^ were 
' — y — ' taken by surprise ; and, relying upon the compact that 
had been ratified on the occasion of Stone's death, were 
totally unprepared for war. Endecott's demands were 
received with astonishment. Lay aside your arms, was 
the message of Sassacus, as my warriors shall their 
bows, and we will confer together in the spirit of peace. 
But the Puritan general, regarding the proposal as a plot 
" to gain time," bid the messengers " begone and shift 
for themselves," and even was obliged to prohibit his 
men from firing upon them. You have dared the Eng- 
lish to fight with you, said he, and " now they have come 
for that purpose." ^ On this abrupt termination of peace, 
the Indians precipitately retired, availing themselves of 
every thicket, rock, and tree, to protect their bodies 
against the fatal missiles of the English, and shooting 
their bone-pointed arrows at the iron corslets of the 
advancing enemy. The retreat of the Indians soon 
became a flight ; and, on reaching the wigwam capital 
of Sassacus, not a warrior was found to oppose its de- 
struction — not a squaw to plead, by her helplessness, 
for the safety of her tribe. 
The Pc- Thus ended the expedition of Endecott, to the great 

amiince^^ dissatisfaction of the government.^ He brought home 
Narra^ui- witli him uo wampum and no slaves, and the Pequods 
still kept possession of the land of their fathers. But 
the calumet had been smoked for the last time at their 
council-fires, and their pride and glory had fled forever. 
" Stirred and provoked " by this wanton outrage, they 
began the system of retaliation ; * and, burying their 
hereditary animosity against the Narragansetts, they 

' Hutchinson, vol. i. p. 6i. "^ Charge against Massachusetts, 

2 Winthrop's Journal. by Connecticut Commissioners, Ha- 

3 Hutchinson. zard, vol. ii. p. 416. 



.setts 



AND THE ABORIGINES. 113 

endeavored to rouse that numerous tribe to a sense of part 

II. 

the precarious condition of the aborigines. The argu- ^^^-^ 
ments they used were " most cogent and invincible." 
The strangers, urged Sassacus, a chief whose patriotism 
was of "high order," ^ are encroaching upon our grounds, 
and are depriving us of our rights. If we allow them 
to destroy us in detail, the lapse of a few years will find 
them in possession of our country; but if we form a 
coalition, though our bows and tomahawks, our war- 
whoops and artifice, are powerless before their terrible 
superiority, we may avoid pitched battles, and, by firing 
their houses, killing their cattle, and ceaselessly lying in 
wait in field and wood, we may starve them with hunger, 
or force them to forsake our homes. Wherefore, let us 
be friends and allies, since mutual animosity now can 
only produce common destruction. The Narragansetts 
wavered. They felt the force of these arguments, urged 
with all the eloquence of Indian oratory ; but Roger 
Williams, the Puritan emissary, having arrived at the 
Indian head-quarters, soon defeated the plans of the 
Pequod chief. The Sachem of the Narragansetts " en- 
tertained him royally, nobly feasting him after giving 
him audience."^ For three days, this savage court was 
the theatre of diplomacy, less polished, but equally subtle 
with that of the old world. Yet the event was not long 
doubtful. English presents and promises, united with who enter 
the prospect of immediate vengeance upon their old ty with 

, • 1 1 1 AT Massachu- 

enemies, were too potent to be resisted by the IN arragan- setts. 
setts. They listened to the voice of the tempter ; and 
soon after, in the presence of the elders and magistrates, 
at Boston, entered into a league with the Puritan Com- 
monwealth, which stipulated, with ferocious meaning, 

' Felt's Salem, vol. i. pp. 104, 2 Johnson, b. ii. ch. 6. 
105. 

10* 



114 THE PURITAN COMMONWEALTH 

that neither party should " make peace with the Peqiiods 
without the consent of the other." The volley of mus- 
ketry, which celebrated the ratification of this treaty, was 
fired over the yawning grave of aboriginal existence in 
New England. For the Indians, there was now, indeed, 
no morrow. 
Total de- The Pcquods were now an isolated tribe, and coolly 
ofthePc- and deliberately the Puritan Commonwealth hemmed 
them in on every side. Preparations were made, not for 
war but for butchery ; and, in pursuance of this plan, 
Massachusetts called for assistance upon the neighboring 
colonies. Plymouth remonstrated, and even Connecticut 
wished for a more fitting season. But all in vain. Con- 
science was the plea urged, and " in point of conscience" 
1637. these three jurisdictions united their armed forces against 
the Pequods, for the purpose of achieving their " entire 
destruction." ' The soldiers were animated to a degree 
of ferocity by " the reverend ministers ; " and were en- 
couraged to the utmost contempt of life by the assurance 
that, if any should fall in so good a work, it was " because 
eartJis honors tvere too scant for them, and, therefore, the 
everlasting croivn must he set upon their heads forth- 
zvith.''^ Finally, to render their action harmonious, that 
there might be no wavering of purpose, no remembrance 
of the grace of charity in the work that was expected of 
them, " their ranks were purged of all persons whose 
religious sentiments did not fully correspond Avith the 
general standard of faith and orthodoxy.''^ The seal of 
the Puritan Church was set upon the expedition, by the 
administration of the Holy Communion. Late in the 
spring, the campaign commenced ; and, before the close 

' Hazard, vol. i. p. 513. Sav. ^ Address of the Elders, Johnson, 
Winthrop, vol. i. p. 194. b. ii. ch. 6. 

•^ Grahame. 



AND THE ABORIGINES. 115 

of summer, the Pequods were swept as by a whirlwind part 
from the face of the earth. They made " a noble stand > — y — ' 
against the united forces of New England, and would 
certainly have defended their country," had the Narra- 
gansetts listened to their solemn warning. But they had 
not a friend or an ally, and perished by their ancestral 
graves without sympathy or hope. When nearly all 
their warriors had been destroyed, and only a handful 
remained in "a hideous swamp," to make one more stand 
against their unrelenting foes, the terms of peace were 
offered them. The land had been conquered, would it 
not want slaves for cultivation ? Lay down your arms, 
was the proposal, and " surrender into our hands all of 
your number who have killed any of our countrymen." 
We will stand by one another, and sell our lives as dear 
as we can, was the heroic reply. And, during that 
dreadful night, the stars of heaven looked down upon a 
band of Christian men, whose lips were yet moist with 
the sacramental wine, and who poured, without ceasing, 
their shots into the mud and thicket, where were gathered 
the last remnants of the Pequod race, men, women, and 
children. The light of morning broke upon an awful 
scene. The Indians were discovered " sitting in heaps," 
the old men, the squaws, and the pappoose close together. 
The warriors were dead, dying, or heart-broken. They 
fought no more. Nor did these shuddering groups of 
humanity ask for quarter, or resist destruction. They 
received, unmoved, the shots of the Puritan troops, who 
surrounded the swamp, only twelve feet apart, whose 
pieces were " laden with ten or twelve pistol bullets at a 
time," and the muzzles of which were " put under the 
boughs, within a few yards of them." And thus, to the 
end, these " sullen dogs " preferred death to the tender 
mercies of Puritanism. Their rude fortresses were taken 



116 THE PURITAN COMMONWEALTH 

CHAP, and burnt, and in them hundreds of their race. Such 
II. 

^^-r^ liolocausts the world has rarely seen. They were pur- 
sued into thicket and swamp ; they were hunted in val- 
ley and hill ; and, before the summer had closed, eight 
hundred Pequod warriors were butchered by the Puritan 
forces. One hundred and eighty women and children 
remained, as trophies of the conquest ; and of these, the 
females were distributed as slaves among the English 
towns and the Narragansetts, while the male children 
were sold to the Bermudas. The male adults taken cap- 
tive, old and young, were to a man beheaded.^ And so, 
" some burning, some bleeding to death by the sword, 
some resisting until they were cut off, some beaten down 
as they were flying," and a small remnant captured and 
enslaved, the noblest race of red men in New England 
perished. Their chief became a fugitive and outlaw ; 
and the triumph of the Puritan Commonwealth was 
complete, when the scalp of Sassacus was paraded in 
Boston. Such was the end of a tribe, which, as Win- 
throp afterwards said, had done Massachusetts no in- 

Fate of the Finally, the expedition, which "that famous pastor," 

iGfidGrs of •'1 1 

this expc- Mr. Hooker, had blessed and sanctified, was closed by a 

dition, an . . . ,:ri • i • 

instance of public thaiiksgriving". The shrieks and ffroans of this 

Divine re- *^ » & _ & ^ 

tribution. slaughtered race went up like the smoke of incense, and 
were succeeded by the quaint hymns of the time. But 
the God of battles did not long delay to avenge the 
insult which had been put upon his holy religion. The 
Pequod territory, the coveted possession which had led to 
this frightful butchery, disappointed its conquerors. This 
})lace, wrote Stoughton, the English commander, " is 
scarce worthy much cost. There is no meadow near, 

1 Hubbard's Indian Wars. John- 2 See Hazard, vol. i. p. 513. 
son, b. ii. ch. 6. 



AND THE ABORIGINES. 117 

and the upland, though good, is unfit for ploughs." He 
added, with savage meaning, that if it 2vere zvished to 
enlarge the state^ and to iwovide for the j^oor servants of 
Christy the country beyond the Connecticut was better for 
that purpose.^ Such as it was, however, the conquered 
soil continued a bone of contention between Massachusetts 
and Connecticut for a long number of years, and pro- 
duced much estrangement and bitterness of feeling. And 
it was not until the latter colony received a royal charter, 
that the question was settled.^ But the captains of this 
famous expedition, who, by their cowardly cruelty, had 
sullied the religion they professed, and had exterminated 
a nation that they might better their own condition, were 
visited probably with as remarkable a series of divine 
judgments as history records. Stoughton, the general, 
who, with several others, afterwards entered the parlia- 
mentary service in England, was the only one who died 
away from his home ; his companions all returning. 
Underbill, a confessed adulterer, was banished in disgrace 
from the Puritan Commonwealth, during the Antinomian 
troubles. Patrick, a " vicious man," though a " member 
of the church," was shot by a Dutchman, at Stamford, 1643. 
in an affray at the house of his comrade. Underbill. 
Mason, who applied the torch with his own hand to the 
Pequod fort, in which hundreds of men, women, and 
children burned to death, just ten years after, was burnt 
out at Saybrook, on a tempestuous night in the depth of 
winter, losing all his goods and property, and barely 
saving the lives of himself and his family. Turner was 
lost in a ship which sailed from New Haven, and was 1646. 
never heard from. Davenport, long after the Pequods 

1 See his Letter to Gov. Win- 
throp, Sav. Winthrop, vol. i. App. 2 Hazard, 

p. 400. 



118 THE PURITAN COMMONWEALTH 



II. 



CHAP, were foro;otten, in the evening of his hfe, and in the 
apparently secure enjoyment of station and respectabihty, 
was in a moment blasted by a flash of lightning. Ensign 
Jennison, soon after the Pequod expedition, fell into dis- 
i^race, and only saved himself from ruin by the most 
abject humiliation. The list of officers is complete, and 
behold in what manner Heaven rewarded these sancti- 
monious homicides ! We can only add here, to show 
how the Great Spirit of Nature taught the rude hearts 
of these heathen, that, in the midst of the desolation a 
false Christianity was inflicting upon them, two English 
maids, whom they captured, were " well treated," and 
were only asked whether they " could make gun- 
powder." ^ 

One thing is discoverable in the policy pursued by the 
Puritan Pilgrims, which the Indians themselves must 
have both known and resented. If the red man raised 
liis hand against the white, no matter if it were in 
defence of his life, family, or property ; no matter if 
the victim were an outlaw, hunted from society, disgraced 
and utterly abandoned ; it was an offence that the blood 
only of the offender could expiate. Thus, before the 
Pequod expedition returned. Block Island was visited, 
and two or three lives were sacrificed to the manes of 
Oldham, a man who, in his life, had been the torment of 
both Plymouth and Massachusetts. 
The Niir- Au aboriginal coalition, first suggested by the Pequod 
chief, and afterwards carried into such terrible effect by 
King Phillip, at this early period might have resulted in 
the extermination of the English ; and some solitary 
ship, afterwards touching at Massachusetts Bay, would 
have beheld the stillness of the wilderness where was 

1 Johnson, vol. i. b. ii. c. i. Sav. Winthrop, vol. i. p. 224. 



rajransctts. 



AND THE ABORIGINES. 119 

expected the busy hum of hfe, and have carried home part. 
the starthng news, that transatlantic Puritanism had dis- ^-^^-^ 
appeared. But Providence decreed otherwise ; for it was 
no part of the Divine scheme, that Nature should hold 
longer dominion over the vast regions of the New 
World. An awful retribution awaited the Narragansetts, 
for the part they took in the destruction of the Pequods. 
They had " preferred the present pleasure of revenge 
upon their enemies, to the future happiness of themselves 
and their posterity ; " ^ and their proud sachems, roman- 
tic hunting-grounds, and cunningly-wrought wigwams, 
mats, and wampum, were all to pass away like a tale that 
is told. Giving free scope to their revengeful passions, 
they demanded, as a condition of their alliance with the 
English, that the Pequod nation should utterly perish. 
Their wishes were gratified. They enjoyed the pleasure 
" of dancing and whooping- over their dying enemies." 
But they were now to feel, in all its bitterness, the force 
of that truth, which was urged by the Pequod king as a 
motive for aboriginal alliance. The friendship of the 
English could bring them nothing " but tlie favor of 
being last devoured." 

The treaty of 1637, between Massachusetts and the 
Narragansetts, was, as usual, entirely ex parte^ with the 
exception of the article already named, relating to the 
destruction of the Pequods. Even the stipulation for 
free trade, which equally bound both parties, was unequal 
in its operation ; for, while all the simple stores and 
curious manufactures of this dexterous tribe lay open to 
the trade and barter of the English, those works of 
civilized art, which the Indians most coveted, and which 
were indispensable for their protection against civilized 

^ Hutchinson. 



120 THE PURITAN COMMONWEALTH 

CHAP, marauders, namely, guns, powder, and shot, were, by an 
^ — < — ' early colony law, forbidden to be sold to them, under 
heavy penalties. At the same time, intrigues were car- 
ried on with the Dutch, to prevent their trucking of these 
articles with the Indians ; and a law was finally passed, 
prohibiting both Dutch and French from violating this 
settled policy of the Puritan Commonwealth, under pen- 
alty of confiscation. However unequal as was this treaty, 
which the Narragansett sachems, it seems, " did not well 
understand when they subscribed their marks, "^ it was 
assented to by both parties, and made binding on their 
posterity forever. Why was it that five years scarcely 
elapsed, before Miantonimo, the chief of this notable 
tribe, " the best friend and kindest benefactor the colony 
ever had," ^ received from his allies judgment of death X 
How did it chance that, before the maturity of another 
generation, the Narragansetts had vanished from the face 
of the earth % 
The Mo- The Puritan Commonwealth ever regarded its Indian 

intngue allies as dependants. The law of nations, which makes 
the Nar- uo distinction between the greatest empires and the pet- 
tiest principalities, which guards with equal care the 
rights of Pagan, Mohammedan, and Christian States, 
was entirely ignored by the Puritan Pilgrims, in their 
dealings with the aborig-ines. So that a measure was 
expedient for themselves, it little mattered whether it was 
offensive to the Indians.^ If they fought with the 
natives, they fought to exterminate and to enslave.'* If 
they treated with them, it was in order to oppress. In 
164'5, the Commissioners of the United Colonies de- 

' Sav. Winthrop, vol. i. p. 199. ^ In 1641, a law was passed by 

2 Gov. Stcph. Hopkins, in 2 the general court, declaring that 
Mass. Hist. Coll. vol. ix. p. 202. there should be no bond slavery in 

3 See Winthrop's Letter, Hazard, Massachusetts, except in cases of 
vol. i. p. 514. capii'vcs taken in ivars. 



AND THE ABORIGINES. 121 

clared, that tliey had always had " an awful respect to 
Divine rules in their treaties with the barbarous natives 
of the wilderness. " ^ And what were these " Divine 
rules," by which the Puritan Pilgrims proposed to be 
governed ? They were the same which, in the old time, 
whitened the land of Canaan with the bones of its wicked 
inhabitants, and crimsoned its streams with their blood. 
The Indians were presumptuously regarded as the chil- 
dren of the devil ; and were, consequently, entitled to no 
mercy at the hands of the Christian Israel. They pos- 
sessed the land, which of right belonged to the chosen 
people ; and the treaties entered into with them were 
little better than traps set for the simple by the cunning. 
And so Miantonimo soon learned. The Pequods were 
destroyed, but their land was not shared with him. Cap- 
tives were taken, but he had no voice in their disposal. 
But, far worse than this, the friends for whom he had 
sacrificed so much began to regard him with coldness 
and suspicion. Uncas, Sachem of the Mohegans, by a 
complete submission to the English, " insinuated further 
than himself into their favor," and prejudiced their minds 
against the Narragansetts. The Mohegans, seated be- 
tween the River Thames and the Connecticut, became 
jealous of the Narragansetts, and Miantonimo had now 
to suffer the same fate which he had made Sassacus 
undergo. Strange rumors began to circulate, of a gen- 
eral conspiracy by the Indians, and somehow the Mohe- 
gans were never included among the conspirators. Intel- 1642. 
ligence was forwarded from Connecticut to Boston, that 
the Narragansetts had formed a league with the Mohawks 
and other tribes, to cut off" all the English after harvest 
time. The petty chiefs near Boston were immediately 

1 Hazard, vol. ii. p. 45. 
11 



122 THE PURITAN COMMONWEALTH 

CHAP, disarmed, and a summons was sent to Miantonimo to 
II. ' 

"— -V — ' ajipear before the general court. He unhesitatingly 
obeyed the call, and, in the presence of his own counsel- 
lors, whom, with great rectitude of purpose, he brought 
with him, to prevent the suspicions of his people, de- 
manded the names of his accusers. He " showed good 
understanding in the principles of justice and equity ; " 
and declared that, if liis accusers could not make good 
their charges, they ought to suffer the same punishment 
that they were endeavoring to inflict upon him. The 
governor was forced to avow, that he did not know the 
authors of the rumor. Miantonimo then gave " divers 
reasons" why he could not be engaged in any conspiracy, 
and cleared himself to the satisfaction of the court. He 
affirmed his belief that the rumors were started by Uncas, 
and avowed his readiness to meet him in Connecticut or 
at Boston, and " prove to his face his treachery." He 
conchuled by offering to renew his treaty with Massa- 
chusetts, declaring that, " if any of the Indians, even those 
who were as his own flesh and blood, should do any 
wrong to the English, he would leave them to their 
mercy." His gravity of deportment, his wisdom, the 
nobleness of his sentiments, and the justness of his con- 
clusions, won the respect of his stern and suspicious 
hearers ; and the princely pagan had the melancholy satis- 
faction of wringing from his (^ln*istian allies that confi- 
dence, wliich is the involuntary tribute paid by littleness 
to magnanimity. 
Defeat and Miantouiuio, however, was unable to appear at Boston 
i^iiantoni- with cach ncw rumor that arrived. Every bark from 
( Joiniecticut brought fresh alarms, and every letter from 
thence urged upon Massachusetts the necessity of active 
preparation. The " minds of men were filled with fear," 
and, during the watches of the night, the trembling in- 



mo. 



AND THE ABORIGINES. 123 

mates of the border cottages listened with apprehension 
to every sound, and peered through their carefully closed 
shutters into the darkness of the surrounding forest, 
dreading each moment to see the stealthy steps and fan- 
tastic trappings of the Narragansett and Mohawk war- 
riors. On one occasion, cries for assistance against a 
pack of wolves were distorted, by fear, into the terrible 
warwhoop, and roused the vigilance of the inhabitants 
from town to town, until the roll of the drum could be 
heard " in all the towns about the Bay." Such a moral 
epidemic as this, the result, it must have been, of guilty 
apprehensions, was not to be arrested by any defence, 
however complete ; and the year following Miantonimo's i643. 
public vindication at Boston, while he was dreaming * ^^' 
away his life in fancied security on the shores of Narra- 
gansett Bay, while the Mohawks were returning from 
their distant huntinof-ffrounds on the borders of the 
northwestern lakes, the four Puritan States of New 
England, led oft" by Massachusetts, united in a league, 
oftensive and defensive, against their ally and friend. 
An occasion only was wanting now to renew the Pequod 
tragedy ; and there can be little doubt that, had one 
offered at this time, the Narragansetts would have joined 
the Pequods in the land of spirits. But the United Col- 
onies were relieved from a dilemma by a fracas between 
the rival tribes. Uncas "had wronged Sequasson," a juiy. 
petty sachem on the Connecticut, and a dependant of 
Miantonimo's, by killing some of his men, burning his 
wigwams, and carrying away his goods. The Narra- 
gansett chief espoused his cause, and asked permission 
of Massachusetts to make war upon Uncas. He was 
answered by a declaration of neutrality ; ' and, confident 

1 Sav. WInthrop, vol. ii. pp. 128, 129. 



124 



THE PURITAN COMMONWEALTH 



CHAP, of the good faith of the Puritan Commonwealth, lie led 
^■^-Y — ' one thousand of his warriors into the country of the 
August. Mohegans. " The battle is not always to the strong ; " 
and Miantonimo had the mortification not only of suffer- 
ing defeat, but of being delivered, by the treachery of 
two of his own captains, into the hands of his rival. 
The news of his capture was received with great satis- 
faction throughout New England. The harvests were 
gathered in security, and no guilty fear was longer enter- 
tained that, before the annual thanksgiving had arrived, 
the English would be exterminated by a Narragansett 
and Mohawk coalition. 
His fate. Uncas was at a loss how to dispose of his captive. 
The life of " a great king " was sacred in his eyes ; and 
such had been his disgust at the treason which placed 
Miantonimo in his power, that he slew the faithless Nar- 
ragansetts on the spot. The captive sachem disdained 
to ask for his life, though repeatedly pressed by Uncas. 
Why do you not speak ? said the latter. " If you had 
taken me, I would have besought you for my life!"^ 
But the Narragansett continued mute ; so that Uncas 
was fain in his perplexity to carry him to Connectic\it, 
and to beg the advice of its magistrates as to his dis- 
posal. He was referred to the Commissioners of the 
United Colonies, who were soon to meet at Boston ; and, 
in the mean time, Miantonimo was detained a prisoner at 
Hartford. Though "very courteouslv treated," the royal 
captive did not enjoy the sympathy of his keepers ; nor 
did the magnanimity of his character, which led him to 
caution the English to guard against surprise from his 
people, who were plotting for his rescue,^ serve to destroy 
their unjust suspicions. In Sej)tend)er, the connnissioners 



' Sav. Winthrop, vol. ii. p. 131. - Ibid. p. 132, n. 



AND THE ABORIGINES. 125 

assembled, and tliey dedicated the first business of the part 
colonial union to an act of "perfidy and cruelty."^ Mian- ' — v — ' 
tonimo little dreamed that, while he was chafing in his 
bonds at Hartford, and longing, as a child of nature only 
can long, for the freedom of the forest, his Christian 
friends at Boston, so far from entertaining any such prop- 
osition, were endeavoring to find some excuse for putting 
him to death. For an Indian to excite the suspicion of 
a Puritan was a heinous offence in itself; but Mianto- 
nimo had capped the climax of his enormities, when he 
presumed, a short time before his capture, to give shelter 
to the Gortonian fanatics, who were so much the objects 
of virulent persecution by the Puritan Church. This 
was a crime not to be forgotten or forgiven. But the 
commissioners were much puzzled. It was not best to 
set him at liberty ; and there was no adequate ground 
for depriving of life a chief so much beloved by a pow- 
erful tribe. The utmost ingenuity was tormented in 
vain for some pretext, which, if not honest, might at 
least appear plausible.^ At a loss to proceed, fearful of 
the responsibility their inclinations were urging them to 
assume, they " in this difficulty propounded the case to 
the elders." And with the elders truly there was no 
hesitation. From the teachers of Christianity, this noble 
pagan received sentence of death ; ^ and secretly, without 
a hearing, unstained by any crime, and still trusting in 
the honor of his allies, was consigned to an ignominious 
grave. Too cowardly to carry their own iniquity into 
execution, the commissioners cast the burden upon Un- 
cas ; and, delivering Miantonimo into his hands, told 
him that he ought to die, since he had not only wronged 

1 Sav. Winthrop, vol. li. p. 132,11. 3 Tiumb. Conn. vol. i. pp. 132- 

2 See Records of Commissioners, 134. 
in Hazard, vol. ii. p. 7. 

11* 



126 THE PURITAN COMMONWEALTH 

him,^ but had endeavored to excite animosity against the 
EngHsh. Wherefore they advised him to carry his pris- 
oner into his owti country, and in a " humane" manner, 
" without torture," to put him to death. To strengthen 
his resohition for a deed at which Uncas himself shud- 
dered, they promised him assistance in the event of his 
being molested. But, in case the Mohegan chief refused 
" to execute justice " upon the royal captive, provision 
was made for bringing him to Boston, and keeping him 
in " safe durance," to await the further action of the 
commissioners, which proves that he had done nothing 
worthy of death.^ And so perished the great sachem of 
the Narragansetts, and with him the independence of his 
tribe. No diligence of inquiry could detect the slightest 
evidence of his hostility to the English ; and the rumors 
of aboriginal coalitions, which had been rife every year 
since the landing of the Plymouth fathers, had been 
invariably traced " to opposite factions among the In- 
dians." ^ It is needless to consider whether the law of 
nations, or the common principles of morality, were most 
violated in the case of this unhappy prince ; since so 
palpable was the injustice, and so unrighteous the policy, 
that mind and heart are equally amazed at the extent of 
human infirmity. 
The Nar- The death of Miantonimo plunged his people in de- 
seek the spair. They had paid Uncas " a great ransom " for his 

aid of Mas- 1.^411,1 . . .,,, , 

sachusctts lite, and had also given " in particular to the commis- 

to avenge . i v ■; t-> • i r 1 1 i 

his death, sioucfs " aoout lorty pouuds. ruitliiul to the last in 

trusting to the honor of their allies, they attributed the 
death of their chief to Uncas alone, and not to the Com- 

1 See the wretched story trumped ^ Winthrop's Journal. Hubbard, 
up against Miantonimo in Johnson, Hutchinson. 

b. ii. ch. 23. "* Gorton's Simplicitie's Defence, 

2 Hazard, vol. ii. p. 13. &c. p. 83. Haz. vol. ii. pp. 25, 39. 

S Hazard, vol. ii. p. 47. 



AND THE ABORIGINES. 1^7 

missioners of the United Colonies, who had secretly part 

II. 
corrupted him. An outbreak between the Narragansetts ' — y^ 

and the Mohegans consequently became imminent ; and 
Pesecus, the young brother and successor of the mur- 
dered sachem, sent a rich present of furs and wampum 
to the Governor of Massachusetts, requesting neutrality 
in the expiatory war he felt bound to wage against Un- 
cas. The petition was both just and proper, and had it 
been presented to clean hands and pure hearts would 
have met with applause. We have only to suppose the 
unhappy Miantonimo the head of a civilized state, to 
understand what was due to his ofiended and aggrieved 
nation. Alas, for the credulity of the poor Indians, ever 
trusting and ever betrayed ! 

The present of Pesecus was coldly received, and his But with- 

^. . 11 ^ , out success. 

petition was answered by a request to preserve peace. 
He again sent presents to the Puritan Magistrate, urging 
with many arguments that his reasonable petition might 
be granted. He was sternly refused, and told that " if 
the Narragansetts made war upon TJncas^ the Engtish 
would all fall upon tliemr Greatly incensed at this 
reply, he and his chiefs declared that they would not hear 
of peace until they had the head of Uncas ; and no longer 
trusting to their treaty with the Puritan Commonwealth, 
which they now saw in its true light, they took the 
advice of their Rhode Island friends, and put themselves 
under the protection of the King of England.^ They i644. 
now pleaded the common relation of subjects to their ^^'' 
taskmasters, and declared that if any differences occurred 
between them and the English, they should be submitted 
for adjustment to the throne. The policy was ingenious, 
but unwise. Charles himself had been wronged by these 

' See their deed of submission, In Gorton's Simpllcltie's Defence. 



128 THE PURITAN COMMONWEALTH 

CHAP, same stern Puritans in his liappier days, and was now 
' — v^ powerless over them ; and the Narragansett chiefs were 
told that those who counselled them to take this step 
were " evil men," unworthy of confidence. But they 
still avowed their determination to avenge the death of 
Miantonimo, and " marvelled that the English should be 
The Puii- against it." When it was discovered that their purpose 

tans make i i i • i 

tiiisniove- was uot to DC shaken, active measures were taken to 

ment a pre- ... , t i • 

text for reduce them to submission ; and, regarding their con- 

hostilities. . "^ . *".„ ,, 

tempt oi her wishes as " sumcient to justify a war, 
Massachusetts again raised her blood-red standard, and 
invited the cooperation of the other colonies. Men were 
impressed for this expedition, for none offered to volun- 
teer ; ^ and the commanders were directed, " not onhj to 
aid tlic Mohegans hut to ofcnd the Narnujansettsy At 
the same time, orders were specially given, that all cap- 
tives taken m the campaign should be " improved for the 
advantage of the colonies^ whether men, rvomen, or chil- 
dren^ ^ History can panegyrize few instances of nobler 
faith than that of these untutored Indians, who, up to 
this time, do not appear to have suspected their allies of 
having any part in the death of their chief. Proverbial 
for fidelity themselves, they could not understand treach- 
The Nar- cry ill otlicrs. They were now undeceived, by the arrival 
fearing the of iiiesseugers froiii the commissioners, and the formid- 
ces, seiida able preparations of Massachusetts brought vividly to 
to Boston, their remembrance the terrible fiite of the Pequods. 
Sobered by reflection, intimidated by menace, and ener- 
vated by terror, they finally signified their willingness to 
give up the chastisement of Uncas, and to send a depu- 
tation to Boston. The messengers, softened by these 
marks of humiliation, " departed from their instructions," 

1 Hutchinson, vol. i. p. 131. ^ Hazard, vol. ii. pp. 31, 34. 



AND THE ABORIGINES. 129 

and, retaining the presents they had been sent to return, part 
despatched word to the commanders of the Enghsh forces — v — ' 
to stay the sword, for tliere was " prospect of peace. " 
Will it be believed that this humane act " offended the 
commissioners ? " Can it be credited that the expecta- 
tions and hopes of these pious Puritans reached beyond 
conquest to extermination ^ ^ 

Arrived at Boston, the Narragansett chiefs were ac- Their un- 

~ _ just treat- 

cused of maJcing tvar upon the alhj of Massachusetts^ and'^^^nt. 
of putting her to the expense of raising forces fo7' defence. 
You have been the cause of all this outlay, it was said ; 
and it is, therefore, just that you should bear the charges. 
But we do not wish to be harsh, and, " to show our 
moderation," we shall only require you to pa/j tivo thou- 
sand fathoms of wampum., to restore all the goods you 
have taJcen from Uncas^ to keep perpetual peace tvith the 
English and their allies^ and, as securitij for the faithful 
performance of these engagements., to leave ivith us some 
of g our children as hostages.'^ Such was the moderation 
of these stern taskmasters ! The tribute in wampum 
alone amounted to five hundred and sixty-six pounds ; 
nearly as much as the whole tax levied that year in tlie 
Puritan Commonwealth by the general court.^ But a 
harder requisition than this was the one which required 
them to remunerate Uncas, who had so treacherously 
murdered their sachem. Nevertheless, they had no 
choice. The Narragansett chiefs signed the treaty, de- August. 
livered their children as hostages, and silently tracked 
their way back to homes which they felt could not long 
be theirs. No " volleys of shot," like those which cele- 



^ Hutchinson, vol. i. p. 132. li"g- Hutchinson, vol. i. p. 113, n. 

2 Hazard, vol. ii. p. 40. Two thousami fathoms were, there- 

3 A fathom of wampum was val- fore, worth £566 13J. ^d. 
ued at five shillings eight pence ster- 



130 THE PURITAN COMMONWEALTH 

CHAP, brated the departure of Mlaiitonimo, a few years before, 
> — r^ dismissed them on their way ; and, ere they quitted the 
hmits of the Eiighsh settlements, the breeze might liave 
borne to their ears the sound of the Cliristian drums, 
beating thanksgiving to God for the substantial tokens 
of their humiliation. The day of fasting, which had 
been appointed to usher in another Puritan butchery, was 
changed into a thanksgiving, to commemorate another 
Puritan robbery.^ 
Desperate The futurc Career of the Narragansetts was one of 

cnnilitionof it tt i • 

this tiibe. sorrow and disaster. Unable to bear with fortitude the 
loss of their children, they plotted for their rescue, but 
with little method and no courage.^ The fingers of their 
squaws were not nimble enough to weave two miles of 
wampum in time to satisfy Puritan rapacity ; and, being 
" sharply rebuked " by the commissioners for their re- 
missness, they sold all their kettles, and, in " grief of 
spirit," humbly laid the price at the feet of their oppress- 
ors." ^ They were the unhappy objects of a perpetual 
and suspicious espionage. If they sent a present to a 
friendly tribe, it was construed into a bribe for a coali- 
tion. If their young warriors took the war-path, to 
chastise an insult or an injury, the notes of hostile prep- 
aration sounded in their ears, from the banks of the 
Merrimac to the shores of Long Island Sound, Driven 
to despair, they once more appealed to the English 
crown. The restoration of Charles the Second beheld 
the agents of this broken-hearted tribe mingled with the 
motley crowd at the foot of the throne ; and begging, in 
common with Quakers, Baptists, Familists, and others, for 
protection against the oj)pressions of Puritanism. Tlie 
aj)peal was not in vain ; and the Narragansetts were 

' Hutchinson. ^ Sav. Winthrop, vol. ii. p. 263. 

- \\m\. vol, i. p. 133, n. 



AND THE ABORIGINES. 131 

expressly mentioned in the instructions of the royal com- part 
missioners, who were shortly after sent over, as ohjects ^ — ^- — 
for special inquiry. This connnission of inquiry, as will 
be shown in another place, proved entirely abortive ; and, 
ere the Eng-lish monarch could again turn his attention 
to their affairs, the people of Miantonimo had ceased to 
exist. They filled up the measure of their enormities, 
when they exhibited before their connnon sovereii^'n the 
long- catalogue of oppressions which stained the Puritan 
Commonwealth. 

In that patriotic struggle of the aborigines, which Anewtrea- 
conunenced in 167-5, Massachusetts felt that she had froin'uicm. 
forfeited all claim to the regard of the Narragansetts, 
and accordingly altered her policy. She no longer sent 
ambassadors to them, clothed in peaceful garb and 
breathing intoxicating promises, but all her forces, in 
martial array, were poured, without notice or provoca- July. 
tion, into their country. By " this wise piece of con- 
duct," a fresh treaty was extorted from them, wherein it 
was stipulated that they should assist in destroying- King 
Philip, should make satisfaction for all injuries done by 
them at any time to the English, should confirm all their 
sales of land to the latter, should make use of their war- 
riors as a g\iard about their country, for the protection of 
the white settlements, and should deliver hostages for the 
performance of these engagements. As a consideration 
for the compact, they were promised forty trucking 
coats for capturing King Philip alive, and twenty for 
taking his head ; and, for all captives that they should 
take alive, they were promised two coats, and, for every 
scalp obtained, one coat. The bounty for living souls, 
who could be sold as slav^es and converted into money, 
was double that which was offered for the proofs that 
their misery had terminated. 




132 THE PURITAN COMMONWEALTH 

But while the Puritan Commonwealth was endeavor- 
ing to gratify the cupidity of its citizens at the same 
time that it provided for their safety, allowance was not 
made for that hatred of oppression, which is common to 
all classes of creatures. That great lukewarmness should 
have been exhibited by the Narragansetts, in observing a 
treaty extorted at the point of the bayonet, was no more 
than natural ; and although they did not openly violate 
its terms, their hearts w^ere with King Philip, and they 
gladly sheltered his women and children while he was 
fiorhtina" for the disinthralment of his race. This hu- 
mane act displeased the commonwealth, who endeavored 
in vain to prevent it. The Commissioners of the United 
Colonies soon became thoroughly alarmed at the signs 
of a general aboriginal movement ; and, fearful that the 
chiefs of the Narragansetts would join Philip, with their 
two thousand warriors, they " resolved to regard them as 
enemies^'' and to hlot out the tribe from existence^ although 
the ink with which they had ratified a treaty of peace 
was scarcely dry. In this resolution they were sustained 
by public sentiment, which was wrought to the highest 
pitch of zeal by the prophecies of the elders.^ The plan, 
Prepara- suddenly formed, was as suddenly put in execution. A 
war. thousand troops, gathered from all parts of the United 

December. Colouies, wcre mustered in the dead of winter, and 
departed by forced marches for the Narragansett country. 
Their enthusiasm was worthy of a better cause. Trained 
in the art of Indian war almost from their infancy, 
they encountered the severest obstacles without flinching. 
For an early colony law required all bof/s, between ten 
and sixteen years of age ^ to be taught the art of tear ^ and 
instructed in the use of the musket, ])ike, and boiv and 

1 Mather's Indian Troubles, p. 60. 



AND THE ABORIGINES. 183 

arroKj^ hij some one of the veteran officers of the Peqiiod part 
tvar} Thus, these men, educated soldiers as well as ' — •< — ' 
Puritans, from the cradle, with special reference to Indian 
fighting, murmured not at hardships, which might have 
appalled the stoutest hearts ; but, keeping steadily in view 
the objects for which they were sent, and guided by a 
renegade Indian, they invaded the lands of the unhappy 
Narragansetts, blasting them with fire and sword. The 
warriors of Canoncliet retreated before them, making no 
opposition until exasperated by repeated injuries. Their And their 
very entreaties for peace were met with derision. Finally, struction. 
the whole tribe was driven into a stronghold, situated on 
a hill, iu the midst of a swamp. This feeble post, forti- 
fied by rude palisades and bushes, was carried by assault, 
in the space of two or three hours. Nine hundred war- 
riors perished in the struggle ; and, when the fortress was 
fired by its conquerors, the number of old men^ ivomen^ 
and children, that lucre hurned alive, could never he ascer- 
tained? 

In this fortress, the Narragansetts had collected their Heroism 

, . n of Canon- 

stores and their treasures. It was then- granary, as well chet. 

as their fort, and its loss proved fatal to the tribe. The 
horrors of famine now pursued Canonchet, and those of 
his warriors who escaped. Their lives were indeed 
miserable enough ; without homes, without food, without 
hope of any thing but revenge. Even this was denied 
them. The Puritan troops were everywhere upon their 
tracks, hunting them down with equal sagacity and hard- 
iness ; and early in the following spring, Canonchet, who, i676. 
in a " romantic expedition," ventured his life to obtain 
food for his surviving followers, found himself a prisoner 
in the hands of his enemies. He was offered his life, on 

1 Colony Law, 1645. ' Hubbard's Indian Wars. Ma- 

ther. Hutchinson. 

12 



March. 



184 THE PURITAN COMMONWEALTH 

CHAP, condition that lie would sacrifice the independence of his 
'^ — r-^ shattered tribe, and place his people at the disjiosal of his 
captors. He refused the terms with indignation. He 
was then taunted with his boast, that he would not deliver 
up to the English " even the paring of a Wampanoag's 
nail ; " but he turned coldly away, and desired to hear no 
more. Heroic to the last, he received sentence of death 
with tranquil grandeur, only replying : " I like it well 

THAT I shall die BEFORE MY HEART GROWS SOFT, OR 
THAT I SHALL HAVE SAID ANY THING UNWORTHY OF 

MYSELF." The " splendid dignity " of such a fall wrung 
from Puritan writers in\'oluntary admiration ; and an 
historian of the times declared that, by a " Pythagorian 
metempsychosis, some old Roman ghost had possessed 
his body, like an Attilius Regulus." ^ In another place, 
this pious annalist bestows upon the young Narragansett 
chief the epithet of " damned wretch ! " ^ 

With Canonchet fell the integrity of his nation ; but 
his grandeur of character will forever render the name of 
Narragansett illustrious. His attempt to rally his broken 
warriors, after " the great swamp fight," was worthv of 
a mind, which, in the most terrible reverses, maintained 
its fortitude. He fell none too soon. Life would have 
been torture ; since he would have been a king without 
subjects, a proprietor without lands, a hero without glory, 
and a man without rights. The glory of his death may 
well rank this great-hearted pagan chief with the royal 
martyrs of Christendom. He was the last sachem of 
the Narraffansetts. Of the fate of the survivors of his 
shattered tribe, little is known. Some were captured 
and enslaved ; some amalgamated with other tribes ; and 
some perished in the noble ranks of King Philip. Their 

1 Updike's History of Narragan- 2 Hubbard's Indian Wars, 

sett Church. Hubbard. 



AND THE ABORIGINES. 135 

territory, already reduced in size to the present county of tart 
Washington, in Rhode Island, by the sale of Providence ^-^-^ 
to Rog"er Williams, in 1(386, of Rhode Island to Cod- 
dington, in 1688, and of Shawoniet to Gorton, in 1648, 
was soon occupied by the thrifty English, although by a 
righteous retribution it long continued a bone of conten- 
tion between the colonies ; and the soil which Mianto- 
ninio had proudly occupied with the pomp of his bar- 
barous court, a few years later, was famous throughout 
New England for the products of the dairy and loom. 
But what, then, was the condition of its former own- 
ers ? In a sermon preached before the Society for the 1731. 
Propagation of the Gospel, Dean Berkeley remarked, 
that all the Indians in Narragansett were^ for the most 
part^ the servants of the English, ivho have contributed 
more to destroy their bodies, by the use of strong liquor's, 
than by any means to improve their minds or save their 
souls. The manes of Sassacus were indeed appeased ; 
and let it ever be remembered that this, the gentlest of 
the New England races, once taunted by the Pequods 
as a nation of women, though they submissively bowed 
before the wondrous power of civilization, yet had a suffi- 
ciency of moral courage to withstand the teachings of 
Puritanism. The religion of the Puritan Commonwealth 
they resolutely resisted to the last. 

Allusion has already been made to Philip, sachem ofxheWam- 
the Wampanoags, who, perhaps, stands out in bold relief 
from all the other native chiefs. It was not in power 
that he excelled Canonchet, for the warriors of his own 
tribe were not nearly so numerous as those of the Narra- 
gansett chief; it was not in their more warlike character 
that he had the advantage of Sassacus, for the Pequods 
were the terror of all the Indians in their vicinity. His 
superiority is to be attributed alone to his stern resolu- 



136 THE PURITAN COMMONWEALTH 

tion. His bold and active character soon made him an 
object of dislike to his neighbors of Plymonth ; and he 
was charged with ambition, in aspiring to the sovereignty 
of a country which was his heritage ; with perfidy, for 
breaking promises which were extorted from him in du- 
ress ; with impiety, for contemptuously declining to receive 
the gospel at the hands of the despoilers of his people. 
But Philip was neither ambitious, perfidious, nor wicked. 
He had the good sense to distinguish between fair, bona 
fide contracts, and those made by means of fraud and 
deception ; and he, without hesitation, repudiated the lat- 
ter, as an oppression of the weak by the strong. 

The injuries inflicted by the Plymouth Colony upon 
Massasoit and his people are not attributable to Massa- 
chusetts ; and it is beyond our purpose to detail the 
various treaties of submission and tribute, which, for a 
long series of years, were juggled by the disciples of 
Robinson from the sachems of Pokanoket. Though 
"even like lions" to the rest of their neighbors, yet to 
the starving, feeble band of Independents, who intruded 
upon their shores, the Wampanoags had been " like 
lambs, so kind, so submissive and trusty, as a man may 
tridy say many Christians are not so kind or so sincere.'' ^ 
But how were they requited '? Suffice it that Massasoit, 
though called an " enemy to Christianity," continued a 
firm friend of the Plymouth settlers until his death ; 
that his eldest son and successor, Wainsutta, renewed the 
league of amity, which existed between his father and 
Plymouth ; and, as if to seal the friendly compact, ac- 
cepted from the governor of that colony the name of 
Alex.'uider, which he retained during his brief career ; 
that, a few years after, Alexander died of a broken heart, 

1 Sec Hazard, vol. i. p. 148. 



AND THE ABORIGINES. 187 

on account of his ignominious treatment by that colony, part 
which, without cause, suspected his fidehty ; ^ that his ^ — r-^ 
brother, Metacom, who also had accepted the name of 
Philip, pardoning- this outrage, ratified a compact, which 16G2. 
was fast ruining the wild glory of his race ; and that 
these leagues or treaties were entirely of an ex parte 
nature, enuring favorably to the English, and being of 
no manner of benefit to the Indians. For, in what posi- 
tion did Philip find his people, when called upon to 
direct their affairs \ Their lands, formerly extending 
from the easterly boundary of the Narragansetts to the 
westerly limits of what is now the county of Plymouth, 
in Massachusetts, and comprehending generally the pres- 
ent county of Bristol, were, for the most part, in the 
hands of the English, and the native proprietors were 
confined to a few tongues of land, jutting out into the 
sea, the chief of which is now known as Bristol, in 
Rhode Island. These necks of land were alone, of all 
their possessions, rendered by the Plymouth laws inalien- 
able by the Indians ; partly, it was said, because they 
loere '•^ more suitable and convenient" for them^ and partly 
because the English tvere of a " covetous disjjosition" and 
the natives, tvhen in need, tvere " easily prevailed upon to 
part tvith their lands y^ Here, then, Philip found his 
people huddled together, by the insidious policy of the 
Plymouth Colony, surrounded on three sides by the ocean, 
and, on the fourth, hemmed in by the ever-advancing tide 
of civilization. And this was all that forty years of 
friendship with " the Pilgrims " had benefited the Wam- 
panoags. 



1 When seized, and threatened a prince, with his attendants and fol- 

with instant death if he did not ac- lowers." Neal, Hubbard, 

company his captors to Plymouth, 2 WInslow, in Hubbard's Indian 

he requested that he might " go like Wars. Plym. Col. Laws. 
12* 



188 THE PURITAN COMMONWEALTH 

Nevertheless, during eight years, PhiHp continued in 
friendly rorres])ondence with the Plymouth Colony. He 
smothered all hitter retrospections, and, pursuing the 
peaceful occupations of a hunter and fisherman, left 
wide open the door of his wigwam. Although, from his 
peculiar position, every movement was watched, and 
every action suspected ; although his people cotild neither 
grind their hatchets, nor repair the wretched guns sold 
them by the English, that the prying eye and pricking 
conscience of some neighboring marauder did not mark 
1671. and misinterpret the act ; although, in one year, two sep- 
arate submissions were obtained from him, in which he 
was made to acknowledge and promise whatever his 
o})pressors chose to insert therein ; there was nothing 
that showed any deliberate plan on his part to make war 
upon Plymouth. He signed, if not with indifference, at 
least without remonstrance, the papers presented him by 
the English, hardly caring to know their contents ; and 
even on one occasion consented to surrender seventy 
muskets, his richest treasures, to satisfy their ground- 
less suspicions. Once, only, the real light of his soul 
shone out with irresistible strength, when going volun- 
tarily to Boston, he declared, in answer to the perpetual 
accusations of the Plymouth Colony, that though stri})ped 
of nearly all his territory, he was still an independent 
prince. " / am no subject of the Governor of IHym- 
outh^' said he ; " mf/ predecessors and myself have made 
amicable agreements with the English^ but not for subjec- 
tion." Praying Indians, he contemptuously added, are 
your subjects ; " you appoint for them officers and magis- 
trates." From this time, Piiilip began to awake to a full 
sense of the lost condition of the red men. He beheld 
that, wherever the English took root, they spread like a 
vine over the country, destroying, as noxious weeds, the 



AND THE ABORIGINES. • 139 

unhappy aborigines. He beheld the Puritan Colonies taRT 
joined by a unity of interests against the Indians ; a — -^ — 
unity, whose terrible power for destruction had more than 
once been felt by the natives. And he beheld, further, 
such a league among these colonies, that though Mas- 
sachusetts acknowledged the absolute independence of 
Philip, and protested against the injustice of Plymouth, 
she yet united with that colony to force upon him a 
degrading servitude. Was Philip wrong, if, profiting by 
the hint, he endeavored to procure the same union among 
his countrymen ] 

It is impossible to ascertain whether these brooding- Treachery 
fancies of Philip ever matured into any shape or con- of Sausa- 
sistency. Sausamon, a praying Indian, who had fled, for 
" some misdemeanor," to Philip, lived with him as a 
friend and confidant from HyQ'-Z to 167^, and, when 
enticed back to Natick, revealed that the Indians were 
" plotting." The chief evidence of the fact rests upon 
the statement of this poor wretch. Doubtless, he had 
often heard the subject discussed by the Wampanoags, 
and the probabilities of success nicely weighed. It is 
impossible that the scheme could have progressed much 
further. At all events, the irreparable mischief produced 
by the betrayal of the trust reposed in him was summa- 
rily punished by Philip, who ordered one or two of his 
men to put Sausamon to death. The warriors engaged i675. 
in this transaction were soon after captured by the Plym- 
outh colonists, and tried, condemned, and punished, under 
their laws, as felons. This gross outrage drove the iron 
into the soul of the sachem. No pains were taken by 
him to explain the accusations of Sausamon, in expecta- 
tion of which Plymouth anxiously waited; but, gather- 
ing his warriors about bim, he lighted on Mount Hope 
the council-fire of the first Indian coalition in New 



June. 



I 



140 THE PURITAN COMMONWEALTH 

England, half a century after the landing of the Pil- 
grims. 

Which But Philip hardly realized the terrible superiority of 

war. civilized warfare, or his own unreadiness for the ap- 

proaching struggle. The Indians had no resources be- 
yond their sinewy arms, no stores but the scanty cro}) of 
corn for a winter's consumption, no pleasant homes to 
cheer them after the hardships of a campaign. Many of 
the natives, too, whose assistance Philip implored, "were 
in a kind of maze, not knowing well what to do, " while the 
Puritan Colonies were united by a common league, and 
stimulated by a connnon hope. The very position of the 
Wampanoag chief, on one of the necks of land to which 
his tribe was confined by the crafty policy of Plymouth, 
was, at the outset of hostilities, nearly fotal to his cause. 
The hanging of Sausamon's executioners was resented 
by killing cattle, and pillaging houses at Swansey, a 
small hamlet on the confines of the English settlements ; 
and this^ was, in turn, retaliated by the explosion of fire- 
arms, and the shedding of Indian blood. In this way 
the war ojiened ; and though Philip is reported to have 
shed tears on learning that blood had been spilt,^ it is 
consistent with his character to suppose that his grief 
was owing to that fatal precipitancy of action, which 
ruined his plans before they were complete. In the 
latter part of June, it became evident that the full tide 
of savage passion, pent up as it had been for years, was 
beginning to flow with irresistible force, and that the 
security of property and life in the English Colonies 
depended upon united and vigorous action ; and, in July, 
the forces of Plymouth and Massachusetts arrived sud- 
denly at Pocasset, anxious by one blow to end the war. 

' Callcndcr's Century Sermon. 



AND THE ABORKilNES, 141 

Philip, unprepared for such celerity, was takeu hy sur- PAR r 
prise, and hastily retreated into a swamp on the neck, — -^ 
the only species of stronghold known to Indian warfare ; 
and such was the distress to which he was reduced, that, 
had the English been at this time ably connnaiided, their 
settlements would have escaped the horrors of the ensu- 
ing year.^ But the timidity natural to raw militia enured 
to the advantage of Philip, so unpleasantly " brought 
into a pound." It was " ill fighting with a wild beast in 
his own den," they thought ; and, instead of scouring 
the narrow tongue of land in v.hich the chief with his 
bravest warriors and their families sought refuge, they 
determined to starve them out. This plan saved the 
Indians. While the English were guarding the head of 
the neck, and singing quaint versions of the psalms in 
anticipation of victory, Philip, one dark night in the latter 
part of July, accompanied by his men, waded or swam 
over an arm of the sea, which separated him from the 
main land, and escaped into the woods. From this time 
commenced a new era in the lives of the red men. The 
Wampanoag chief retired rapidly towards the West, 
kindling the flames of war wherever his voice was heard. 
Early in August he joined the Nipnets, a small interior 
tribe, dependent upon his family, and publicly rewarded 
its sagamores for destroying" the town of Brookfield, a 
few days before. And now, through the fall, winter, 
and spring, affairs went prosperously with the red men. 
King Philip had thoroughly aroused the slumbering 
wrath of his tawny countrymen. The Nipnets, the River 
Indians, the Nashaways, and the Nianticks, the hunters of 
the valleys of the Connecticut and Merrimac rivers, all 
joined in the coalition against the Puritan Colonies, and 

' Hubbard's Indian Wars. 



1 t-'-i THK PURITAN COMMONWEALTH 

CHAP, shared in the patriotic designs of its leader. The Wam- 

II. '■ ^ . . 

'^■- — ' panoag ambassadors uttered the stirring- words of inde- 
pendence at the council-fires of the Mohawks, and pleaded 
the cause of aboriginal freedom with the old men of the 
Narragansetts. East and West, North and South, the 
joys of liberty were proclaimed in the dialect of the Wam- 
panoags. 

The effect was sudden and appalling. The smiling 
valley of the Connecticut, from Northfield to Springfield, 
teemed ^\ ith warriors, and rung with the strange and ter- 
rible shouts of the warwhoop. At Concord, at Chelms- 
ford, and Andover, the fertile banks of the Merrimac 
bore witness to the retaliating fury of the savage heart. 
Villages were laid in ashes, the hardy pioneers of civil- 
ization perished by fifties, and their wives and children 
were led into heathen captivity. The immolation of the 
Narragansetts, so far from intimidating the savage war- 
riors in this patriotic struggle, served only to increase 
their fury. It was in vain that, for " the encouragement 
of volunteers," the Commissioners of the United Colo- 
nies ordered " all plunder and spoil, whether goods or 
persons," to be apj)ropriated to the use of the captors ; 
it was in vain that the praying Indians w^ere stimulated 

October, to excrtiou by promise of rewards, for " men, women, 
and girls," brought in alive. ^ The panic spread. None 
knew where the storm would break out next. All the 
western towns of Massachusetts suffered more or less, 
during the fall and early part of winter ; and, in the 
n;7C. February following, Medfield, a village scarce twenty 
. miles from Boston, was attacked and nearly destroyed. 
From thence the hurricane passed into the Plymouth 
Colony ; w here Weymouth, and Plymouth, and Scituate, 

^ See Hazard, vol. ii. p. 535. 



II. 



AND THE ABORIGINES. 143 

and Bridgewater, and Taunton, made each some atone- part 
ment for the wrongs of the aborigines. For the first 
time since the settlement of INew England, the God of 
the Christians appeared to have deserted his mistaken 
worshippers. 

Appalled by such terrible reverses, the Puritans cel- 
ebrated days of fasting and humiliation, and the elders 
preached an Indian crusade. Armed bands were sent 
out in every direction, to check the progress of a foe 
more rapid in movement than the fleetest troop of horse. 
No mercy was shown on either side to such stragglers as 
were captured. It was a war of extermination and tor- 
ture. Happily for the colonies, the Indians were con- 
tending- against destiny. Perfect unity of action might 
have gained them their cause ; but the Pequods were 
slaughtered ; the Narragansetts had just shared their 
fate ; the Mohegans continued their alliance with Con- 
necticut ; the praying Indians, converts to zealous Puri- 
tan missionaries, were made use of as bloodhounds against 
their countrymen ; and that " potent nation," the Mo- 
hawks, could never be persuaded to take part in an 
enterprise, the results of which affected them but re- 
motely. But when famine and disease became " the 
allies of the colonies," the cause of the aborigines grew 
utterlv hopeless. Philip had been hurried into war with- 
out stores or magazines ; and, in his rapid movements 
from point to point, much of his scanty provisions was 
wasted and destroyed. His warriors lived the lives of 
desperadoes. If they were successful in pillage, they 
feasted u})on whatever they could find ; beef, milk, pork, 
eggs, and poultry, jumbled into a half-cooked, indiscrim- 
inate mass. If they were unsuccessful, they subsisted on 
acorns, on ground nuts, on horseflesh, on any and every 
thinar that would sustain the fierce fires that burned 



14-4 THE PURITAN COMMONWEALTH 

CHAP, witliin them. Such a mode of Hfe, so contrary to their 
^,-^-w siiuj)le liabits, throw many of them into fluxes and fevers, 
whicli thinned their nund)ers faster than the sword and 
bayonet. To remedy the evil, they endeavored in tlie 
spring to plant corn for the coming season, and separated 
into ])arties for this purpose ; but the English troops beat 
up their quarters so often, that the plan proved abortive. 
In the suunner, therefore, they attempted to supply them- 
selves with fish ; but their encampments by river and sea- 
side were ferreted out and dispersed, — and this it was that 
finallv disheartened the red men. Their cause declined 
as rapidly as it had grown in strength. So early as 
1C7G. April, scarcely nine mouths from the commencement of 
the war. aflairs began to indicate a change ; and though 
the struggle was prolonged, with various success, until 
Julv, the spirit of the Indians continued to droop. Small 
parties, prowling about in search of food, were contimially 
met aud destroyed by some of the bands of soldiers, who 
were scouring the country in every direction ; and many 
of them, disciMjraged and broken, voluntarily surreudered 
to the Puritau trooj)s. The war ended as a hmit, and the 
roar of regular discharges of musketry was succeeded by 
the solitary dropping shots of the chase. 
Desitii of The closing scenes in the life of the master-s})irit of 
this patriotic struggle were worthy of the man. After 
excitiug the red men to arms, from the shores of the 
Atlantic nearly to the banks of the Hudson ; after utterly 
destroying twelve towns in the Puritan Colonies, and 
greatly injuriug many more; after having slain six hun- 
dred of •• the very flower of the country," so that not 
a family remained in Massachusetts or Plymouth but 
mounu'd the death of a relative or friend ; after having 
caused a loss of j)roperty to the amount of lU'arly a mil- 
lion of d(»llars. the greatest misfortune of all, to the 



Philip. 



AND THE ABORIGINES. 14<5 

thrifty inhabitants ; Philip had finished the work of Di- part 
vine retribution, and nought remained for him but to die. ^ — — ' 
A short year before, he inspired his warriors at Mount 
Hope with that terrible coiirage, which is made up of 
despair and vengeance ; and fate now led him back to 
the grave of Massasoit, not again to rally his broken 
nation, not tamely to submit where hope had fled, but to 
end his career fittingly, as an independent chief. And 
this great-hearted savage, who struck to the earth one of 
his chosen friends for daring, in the depths of his misfor- 
tunes, to hint at peace ; who, with a price upon his head, 
wandered from thicket to thicket and swamp to swamp, 
hunted by Christian white and red men, bore bravely up 
until his wife and child were captured by his enemies. 
" My heart breaks ; now I am ready to die ; " then fell 
from his quivering lips. He was soon after shot by a 
renegade Indian of his owii tribe ; and the bullet that August. 
pierced his heart was kind in its mission, since it spared 
him the agony of seeing the tawny little prince, his son, 
the last of the race of Massasoit, that kindly and kingly 
entertainer of the Pilgrim Fathers, sent, like a brute with- 
out a soul, to toil in slavery under the burning sun of the 
Bermudas. More merciful far would it have been, if 
the cold-blooded policy of the Puritan elders had l)een 
adopted, and this heathen child had been put to an igno- 
minious death.^ The scheme was costly, and it was 
declined ; but, in lieu thereof, the head of Philip was, 
like the scalp of the Pequod Sassacus, paraded as a 
trophy, and his skull was long preserved as a monument 
of orthodox vengeance.^ 

The death of Philip finally ended a war, which, pro- 
voked by the aggressive acts of the Puritan Colonies, 

1 See Baylie's Plymouth, vol. iii. ^ Drake's Book of the Indians, 
pp 190, 191. p. 43. 

13 



146 THE PURITAN COMMONWEALTH 

CHAP, and continued, on their part, with solemn mockery of 
■ — v^ — ' fastings and Inuniliations. was closed with thanksoivino;- 
and extermination. The General Court of Massachu- 
setts, hy a special proclamation, directed the people to 
g-lorify God, " that^ of the several tribes that have risen 
up against tis, zvhich ^oere not a fetv^ there noiv scarcchf 
remains a name or famihj of them tvithin their former 
habitations.'' Such was the manner in which the Puri- 
tan Commonwealth carried out the beneficent designs of 
the Massachusetts Bay Company ; and God was glori- 
fied, as the author of all the wrongs that Puritan Chris- 
tianity had heaped upon Pagan humanity. The cruelties, 
which were jiractised in Indian warfare, were amply 
retaliated hy those whose religion should have taught 
them a better morality. Victory brought with it no 
ameliorating usages. The leading captives were slaugh- 
tered to a man ; and the remainder, with their wives and 
children, were sold into slavery. The quarrel between 
Plymouth and Massachusetts for the conquered territory 
was a fitting termination to this barbarous war. 
War with Ere Massachusetts could lay aside her conquering 
ranteens. army, ouc uiorc work remained for her to do. There 
were no more nations left near her to exterminate ; but 
the Tarranteens, who were seated by the waters of Casco 
Bay, had ortendcd, and were to be punished. From the 
beginning, the Indians in this region were treated " like 
slaves" and cheated bjj the km'less adventurers^ zvho, from 
time to time, visited the count r if} But, though suffering 
every species of abuse from sailor§, and traders, and set- 
tlers, during fifty years, they " always carried it fair, and 
held go(Ml corresj)on(lence with the English, until the 
news came of Philip's rebellion." An universal uprising 

^ Ncal. Belknap's New Hampshire. 



AND THE ABORIGINES. 147 

was the effect of this intelHg-eiice ; and such were their 
successes, that, in the summer of 1676, nearly all the 
plantations in Maine were deserted hy the inhahitants, 
and even the settlements on the Piscataqua were threat- 
ened. Terrified at these unexpected disasters, the Eng- 
lish settlers applied to Massachusetts for assistance, al- 
though the usurpations of that colony over Maine had 
been annulled by the commissioners of Charles II. ; and 
when Philip's coalition was finally crushed, an armed 
force was despatched from Boston, to chastise the out- 
break of the Tarranteens. The Puritan troops, made up 
of praying Indians and English, immortalized the cam- 
paign with a " brilliant " exploit. Four hundred war- 
riors, with whom a Major Waldron had made peace, 
were surrounded while his guests, on the pretext of a September. 
sham fight, and made prisoners. One half of them were 
liberated ; but the remainder were sent captives to Bos- 
ton, on the plea that they had been participators in 
Philip's coalition, and, while six were hanged as ring- 
leaders, the rest of them were sold as slaves in " foreign 
parts." This act was "highly applauded" by the Eng- 
lish ; but the Indians deemed it " a breach of hospitality 
and friendship, never to be forgotten or forgiven." ^ 
Waldron himself knew many of his victims to be true 
friends to the English, but, fearful of censure from the 
Puritan Commonwealth, he consunnnated an act of 
treachery which has scarcely a parallel. Many years 
afterwards, in King William's war, he was put to death 
by the Indians, with circumstances of horrible torture, 
having been first entrapped by an artifice more subtle 
than his own. He had nothing to complain of. He had 
sown the seeds of iniquity, and a just God allowed him 
to reap the harvest. 

' Belknap. 



The Puri- 
tans seek 



148 THE PURITAN COMMONWEALTH 

The successful jxMfidy of WaUlron was tlie only glory 
acquired in this expedition. But, in the ensuing- winter, 
a fresh hody of English and praying Indians sailed from 
onhe'iiio-^ Boston for Casco Bay, having first observed a day of 
hawks.^ fasting and prayer for the success of the enterprise. The 
i-'cbruary. same uufiiirness characterized this expedition ; and, after 
some small successes, unworthy of honorable and Chris- 
tian warfare, the Puritan troops returned to Boston, 
" without the loss of a man." Hostilities pursued with 
such utter disregard of humanity and justice could never 
produce peace, unless, at the same time, they effected 
extermination. The spirit of the instructions given by 
the Puritan Commonwealth was, " upon every oppor- 
tunity, without delay, to pursue, and endeavor to take 
captive, kill, and destroy." The Indians became thor- 
oughly exasperated, and their cause grew stronger as it 
grew more patriotic. The general court, perceiving that 
the successes of their arms had only the effect of remov^- 
ing the prospect of peace, discussed the propriety of 
inviting the cooperation of the Mohawks, supposed to 
be a caimibal tribe, who, though then at peace with 
the Eastern Indians, cherished an hereditary animosity 
against them. But is it lawful, said a member of the 
court, to make use of the help of heathen ] Certainly, 
it was urged in reply ; for did not Abraham join in a 
confederacy with the Amorites, to rescue his kinsman 
Lot from the hands of their connnon enemy ? The 
argument was conclusive ; nor did it enter into the 
debate, whether it was righteous to foment deadly strife 
between two savage nations >vho were at peace. Mes- 
sengers were accordingly despatched to the Mohawks, 
who received them with civility, and promised to pros- 
ecute the Puritan quarrel " to the utmost of their 
powxT." 



AND THE ABORIGINES. 14<9 

Late ill March, the warriors of this " potent nation " part 
appeared in the field ; hut their alhance with the Puri- ^^-y — ' 
tans resuked in disaster and disgrace. Everywhere it everywhere 
was reported among the Eastern Indians, that the Mo- ^'^^^ ' 
hawks threatened destruction to all without distinction, 
whether friendly or hostile to the Puritan cause. Nor 
was the report without " very plausible ground ; " since 
the Mohawks made no discrimination in their warfare, 
and even spent their fury chiefly upon the friendly In- 
dians. The incursion of these formidable savages, there- 
fore, seemed only to alienate all the natives from the 
cause of the colonies. Scattered parties of Indians, in June. 
every direction, spread death and destruction along- the 
eastern seaboard, and menaced Portsmouth itself. To 
cripple the resources of the Indians became now the sole 
object of the Puritans. A third expedition, consisting 
of praying Indians and soldiers, was fitted out for this 
purpose at Boston, with orders to capture the stores of 
the enemy, contained in several forts at Taconick Falls, 
on the Kennebec River. At Black Point, where this 
force disembarked, was fought the first pitched battle in juiy. 
New England between the iiati\'es and their oppressors, 
in which the latter were defeated, with a loss of sixty 
killed and wounded, among whom was their commander. 
The victorious Tarranteens followed up this success by 
the capture of twenty fishing vessels on the coast ; and, 
before the close of the summer, they were the undis- 
puted masters of the Province of Maine.^ The war was 
finished. 

The use made by these savages of their victories 
should have forced every Puritan to hang his head with 
shame. They were fighting, not for conquest, nor for 



1 Gookin, in Belknap. 
13* 



150 THE PURITAN COMMONWEALTH 

CHAP, slaves ; and, being left unmolested, the tomahawk was 

' — ^ buried, and the sound of the warwhoop was heard no 

more. Tliey even set an example of magnanimity, which 

they could have learned neither from the precepts nor 

practices of their enemies. They restored to them their 

vessels, and a considerable number of captives, reserving 

the remainder only until peace had been formally made. 

Having prolonged the war for three years in vain, liie 

Puritafns successfully resorted to entreaty. It was a 

proud day for Squanto, the gallant chief of the Tarran- 

teens, when the English begged permission to occupy 

1678. their old habitations, and, in a treaty formally drawn 

^" ' up for the occasion, agreed to pay him an annual 

tribute. 

And these were, in brief, the Indian wars of Massa- 
chusetts under her first charter. When it is remend)ered 
that the facts in the above relation are wrung from the 
reluctant and scanty admissions of Puritan writers, and 
that the Indians had no Hubbards or Mathers to publish 
for them their tale of woe, who can say whether the half 
has been told? We cannot enjoy the gleesome spirit in 
which Hubbard narrates the history of the Indian wars, 
nor can we sympathize with that system of religion, 
which led Mather, and, at a later date, Grahame, to gloat 
over the ruin of the hapless red men. Surely, when we 
shudder and sicken in reading the conquests of Cortes 
and Pizarro, we ought not to forget the sufferings of the 
people who once roamed in the smiling valleys of the 
North ! 
Tcrribio Let US uot be unjust, however, nor attribute the faults 

the Piiri- of tiic Ncw England Fathers to any other than the right 
cause. It was a kindly benevolence, which led Las Casas 
to substitute negro for native slavery in tlie West Indies ; 
it was the sordid love of riclics, which induced Hawkins 



AND THE ABORIGINES. 151 

to introduce the slave-trade into Enolish commerce : and part 

. . . n. 

it was the spirit of a false faith, which taught the Puri- ^ — ■.■ — ' 

tan Pilgrims that heathen blood and lands are lawful 
motives, as well as lawful spoils, of Christian warfare. 
There was no inborn love of cruelty among' them ; and 
frequently, when about to start upon one of their bloody 
excursions, they found it necessary to work themselves 
up to the necessary pitch, by communion, fasting", and 
prayer. To slaughter an Indian was a painful religious 
exercise, as much as to spend a day in bodily abstinence. 
For this reason, the Puritan soldiers were pitiless. The 
negation of works in their religion also cooperated to 
promote injustice in their policy ; and where violence was 
not a Puritan rite, it was but too often a right of Puri- 
tanism. Thus, between the two, the aborigines were 
wholly sacrificed ; and a system of religion, which con- 
fessedly had an eye to the things of Ciesar as well as to 
those of Heaven, in the short space of fifty years swept 
from New England one hundred thousand human beings. 
For these unhappy heathen souls, no Puritan historian, 
magistrate, or elder, then, or since, has expressed a word 
of pity, or breathed a penitential prayer. Unregenerate, 
they were sent into the presence of their dread Judge, 
owing nothing to Christianity but steel, gunpowder, and 
gin.i 

And how did Puritanism find these red men ] Did 

1 The following table, compiled by that worthy notable Major Gen- 
eral Gookin, in 1674, will show what Puritanism did for the unhappy 
aborigines, in less than half a century. See Mass. Hist. Coll. vol. i. 

Tribe. JFarriors for?>ierly. Men in i6-] 4.. 

Pequods, 4,000 300 

Narragansetts, 5, 000 about 1,000 

Wampanoags, 3,000 nearly extinct 

Massachusetts, 3,000 300 

Pawtuckets, 3,000 250 

And this table was compiled six months before the exterminating tvar of 
King Philip ! 



152 THE PURITAN COMMONWEALTH 

CHAP, they drink ? Did they he ? Did tliey gamble 1 Did 
^ — .■ — ' they tliieve ? Were they Hcentious in morals, or de- 
praved in habits ] On the contrary, the simplicity of 
their habits attracted the notice of all Europeans ; and 
Gorges does not hesitate to say, that he " observed in 
them an inclination to folloiv the example of the better 
sort, and in all their carriages to manifest showes of 
great civilitij, far from the rudeness of our common 
-peopUr Their drink was water, their pastime the chase, 
their property was enjoyed in common, and their fidelity 
was proverbial. Disease visited them only in the form 
of old age ; and when death released the hoary warrior, 
his treasures were buried with him in a conunon grave. 
Darkened as he was by Paganism, the great vice charged 
against the Indian by Puritanism was only his cruelty in 
war. This cruelty was amply retaliated by his Christian 
adversary ; and what the savage intended as a test of the 
heroism of his captive, was too often inflicted by the Eng- 
lish from motives of revenge. Whatever were his rela- 
tions to his oppressors, his condition was truly deplorable. 
If he was converted by the Puritan missionaries, he became 
not a Christian, but a praying Indian, despised by his coun- 
trymen, and enslaved by his teachers. If he continued 
faithful to the religion of the forest, the mountain, and 
the waters, of whatever was the abode of the Great Spirit 
whom he ignorantly worshipped, he was accounted no 
better than a Canaanite, and a fit prey for the '' poor 
servants of Christ." 

The crimson record made up by the historian closes 
with the fall of Philip. The welcomes of Massasoit and 
Masconomco had been given but a few years before ; ^ 

1 Massasoit, on Cape Cod, and their future destroyers, the English- 
Masconotnco, on Cape Ann, both men. 
extended this friendly greeting to 






AND THE ABORIGINES. 



153 



and Massachusetts had stretched out tlie long arms of part 
her beautiful bay to inclose and cherish the panting- fugi- ^^ — ■( — ' 
tives, who, chased by phantoms, had iled three thousand 
miles. Had the red man warmed a serpent in his bosom, 
which fed upon his naked heart \ Was his blood like 
water, that it flowed so many years to enrich the land 
of his fathers, and to redden its crystal streams ? ^ 



1 Some most honorable excep- 
tions to all this are to be found in 
the annals of Puritanism. We may 
mention, in particular, the Pynchon 
family, which was always regarded 
by the Indians with affection and 
respect. So late as 1751, Jonathan 
Edwards, in a letter to Hon. Thomas 
Hubbard, mentions that the chiefs 
of the Mohawks had lately requested 
that Brigadier Dwight and Colonel 
Pynchon might be impro-i.>ed in fu- 
ture interviews with them. " And 



as to Colonel Pynchon, in particular, 
they urged their acquaintance with 
his ancestors, and their experience of 
their integrity.^'' Let it be a pleas- 
ing heirloom in this family, that 
their name uas cherished for more 
than a hundred years by the warriors 
ot the fiercest Indian tribe, and may 
have been carried as a watchword 
to the western prairies, when the 
Mohawks left forever the homes of 
their fathers. 



CHAPTER III. 

THE PURITAN CHURCH. 



Part I. 



The Fundamental Principle of Independency — The Puritans avow the 
Doctrines of Independency, but are false to its Principles — Peculiar 
Position of the Elders — Practical Inconveniences of the Contract Sys- 
tem — To remedy which, the Covenant is devised — Want of Unity 
and Vitality in the Church — The Antinomian Heresies — Con- 
demned by a Synod — Banishment of the Antinomian Leaders — Subse- 
quent Condition, of the Puritan Chuicli — Divisions on the Subject of 
Baptism. 

CHAr. Haaing g-iveii some account of the political institii- 

r^ tioiis reared by Puritanism in the home of its adoption, 

we now propose to consider, as briefly as we may, the 
true character of its c;-reat coordinate work, the Puritan 
Church. Religion is the aromatic wliicii ))reserves sci- 
ence from corruption, — the science of politics as well as 
all otiier sciences ; and, perhaps, the real condition of 
any national reli<^ion may he <>"uessed by the moral aspect 
of the state which shelters it. Judging the Puritan 
Church of Massachusetts Bay by this standard, we are 
unable, in general, to assign it a high character. Either 
it was too weak to exert a wholesome influence in the 
coiiiiiioiiwcalth, or the influence it exerted was not such 
as to form a true Christian state. Those of our readers, 
who have followed us in our previous discussions of 



THE PURITAN CHURCH. 155 

Puritanism, may have been enal)]e(l to form a tolerably part. 
correct opinion upon this subject. However this m;iy be, > — --^ 
whether the church was the menial servant of the com- 
monwealth, or the connnonwealth was the supple tool of 
the church, are cpiestions which we do not find proposed, 
much less answered, by Puritan historians, but which 
every intelligent churchman of New England should 
know for himself. He need not turn over the brilliant 
pages of Bancroft, nor lose himself amidst the cliaotic 
commonplace of Grahame, in the absurd expectation of 
arriving at the truth. He will be entertained, or wearied, 
according as he reads the happy fiction of the one, or 
yawns over the stuj)id inventions of the other ; but more 
he will not be. To solve such problems as these, he must 
turn his back alike upon the oracles of school-committees 
and meeting-houses, and with an unbiased mind resolutely 
search out the truth. 3IeUus est petere fontcs^ quam sec- 
tare rivulos. 

The fundamental principle of Independency is, that xhc fund- 
any number of persons, not less than seven, professing principle 
Christianity and voluntarily associating together, are a pendency. 
complete church, having no superior but Christ, and 
equal to any ecclesiastical act.' This magic number of 
seven is drawn, by some mysterious process of divination, 
from the Acts of the Apostles ; and serves, by a mirac- 
ulous efficacy, to dispel the mists of ignorance and of 
prejudice, and to confer, instead thereof, the graces of 
piety, and the powers of Apostleship. Thus, seven can 
do as much as a million, but six are as powerless as one. 
In seven persons may lie the power of ordaining minis- 
ters, of expounding the Scriptures, of framing covenants, 
and, in short, of representing, in all its fulness and com- 

1 Walker's History of Independency, Part iii p. 23. 



1,56 THE PUIUTAN CHURCH. 

CHAP, pleteness, a true Cliristian Church. And as this family, 

> — r — ' either g-reat or siuall, wlietlier composed of tlie wise or the 

foolish, whether enlightened by knowledge or debased by 

fanaticism, has no superior but Christ, so it may frame 

its own creeds, promulgate its own articles of faith, and 

smile or frown, according to its humor, upon the grave 

decrees of ecclesiastical synods. 

The Puri- Pure Independency was despised by the colonists of 

the doc- Massachusetts Bay, as being a system of disorganization. 

indepcnd- Had they adopted, without any qualifications, the princi- 

arcftiisc pies of Browuism, they would have stultified themselves 

toitsprin- ^ . P V 

cipies. whenever they resorted to persecution as a cure tor rehg- 
ious difierences. Pure Independency could have found 
no fault with the ravings of the Familists, or the blas- 
phemies of the Quakers. Even Roman Catholics might 
hav^e erected their altars in Boston, and bowed down before 
the Host, without the slightest fear of molestation, had 
our fathers maintained the perfect independence of every 
religious family. But this was far from being the case. 
They adopted the doctrines of the Independents, and 
established them />// law in the Puritan (\)nHnonwealth. 
Thus the law became to the Puritan Church what the 
episcopate is to the Church Catholic, and uniformity was 
enforced by the strong" arm of the civil power. Epis- 
copacy, " that grand choke-weed of Christianity," it was 
said, was not of the Lord's ])lanting, and, therefore, 
should l)e rooted uj) ; and, though the mitre was not tor- 
tured into the liberty caj), as among the Independents, 
yet th(! ])astoral crook ^^•as converted into the fasces of 
tlie magistrate, and sometimes into the bavonet of the 
soldier. In fact, tliough the stern religionists of Massa- 
chusetts hated a ])relatical, they at the same time despised 
a ])(»j)nlar, church government; and they encumbered the 
sacred magistracy of tlieir commonwealth with a variety 



THE PURITAN CHURCH. 157 

of officers, whose powers and duties were often conflict- part 
ing and ill defined. Thus, " they had pastors for teach- ' — v — • 
ing-, elders for ruling, and deacons for distributing." 
The ruling elder might not publicly teach, but he could 
privately admonish. The deacon might not give out the 
hymn, but he could hold a basin for the alms. Even the 
higher office of the ministry was divided between a 
pastor and a teacher ; but where the duties of the one 
ended, and of the other began, was never satisfactorily 
understood. 

Moreover, it is to be considered that the elders, deriv- Peculiar 

position 

ing their offices from their respective congregations, of the 
occupied a position which exposed them to the popular 
caprice. They descended from the dignified station of 
ambassadors of God, and became, instead, the hired ser- 
vants of the people. Their admission to the high offices 
they claimed was by the same door as that of constables 
and selectmen. Thus, in one sense, every church- 
member assumed the powers of a bishop ; ^ and, while he 
patiently listened to discourses prolonged to an intermin- 
able degree, judged for himself whether they came fully 
up to the proper orthodox standard. The ground was, 
that " the Lord has so dispensed his gifts, that, when the 
one want, the other shall abound, both in temporal and 
spiritual."^ The reverence paid to an elder was not to 
the office, but to the man. He could not approach his 
flock with words of command, unless his talents had first 
led captive the strong wills of his sturdy hearers. Re- 
sulting, from all this was the curious relation between 
pastor and flock, Avhich has grown up in New Eng- 
land, and belongs almost exclusively to it ; and which, in 

1 Lechford says that, on coming church-member a bishop. Hutch- 
to New England, he found every inson, vol. i. p. 398, n. 

^ Johnson. 

14 



158 THE PURITAN CHURCH. 

CHAP, these latter days, has s\> lied our books of law reports. 

' — V — ' As one cong-regation ha no power over another, nay, 
acknowledged the power - no sjmods except those of 
the general court and of public opinion, so the minister 
whom each congregation ordained had no rights, duties, 
or office, beyond his own people.^ He was an elder in 
his own pulpit, but out of it was as functionless as 
any private citizen. It is true, that this system was 
afterwards so far modified as to allow occasional ministe- 
rial acts to be performed by the elders for neighboring 
destitute parishes ; but the reluctant change was owing 
partly to the extreme inconvenience of the first-established 
principle, and partly to the fact that Owen, and Goodwin, 
and other influential preachers and writers of the Independ- 
ent school in England, avowed their belief and practice 
to be otherwise.^ In all its essentials, however, the rela- 
tion between pastor and people was a legal contract, and 
not a divine ordinance ; and as there were only two par- 
ties to this contract, the elder and the parish, so it could 
not enure to the benefit of other parishes, who were in 
nowise concerned therein. 

Retaining, therefore, their positions by force of talents, 
and by this alone, the elders of the Puritan Church were 
necessarily the ablest men in the commonwealth. In 
this respect, they differed from the magistrates, who were 
indebted for their influence partly to their property and 
family rank. But the elders were dependent upon their 
own abilities ; and we consequently find that they were 
haughty and overbearing, and possessed of as much influ- 
ence in the commonwealth as they had in the church. 
The pride engendered by this continual self-dependence 
was exhibited, sometimes, in a remarkable manner. For 

* New England Platform. '-^ Ncal. 



THE PURITAN CHURCH. 159 

instance, to preach a sermon not composed by the part 
preacher himself was considered disreputable, if not "^-^ — ' 
criminal.^ Even the Bible was read in public worship, 
not so much to instruct the congregation, as to while 
away the time until every one had arrived, so that the 
sermon might not be interrupted.^ The pulpit, that 
tremendous engine of modern rationalism and individual- 
ism, stood out in the Puritan sanctuary like some pro- 
digious idol of fantastic shape, surmounted by its wooden 
canopy, and elevated far up above the highest altar the 
Catholic Church had ever reared. Its wide-open, insati- 
able jaws, swallowed up altar, priest, and sacrifice ; and 
those who came up to its temples two centuries ago paid 
it an homage, which may have been equalled in these 
latter days, but which has never been excelled. We may 
readily conceive that the " itching ears," which had been 
pampered by the proudest intellects of Puritanism, were 
proportionably arrogant in their demands ; and that no 
ordinary capacity, clothed however it might have been in 
the shining armor of Christian virtues, could have sufficed 
to marshal the ranks of the Puritan Church. The office 
of the elder was local, and not intrinsical ; it was the 
creation of man, and not the gift of God.^ 

Yet the elders were sufferers, in an important partic- Practical 

^•1' ^ ^ • 1 • •! inconven- 

ular, bv reason of their novel relation to their parishes, iences of 

^ the con- 

They were scholars and gentlemen; and at home, whether tract sys- 
as fellows of some college, or as priests, discharging 
parochial duties, had received an honorable support be- 

1 Hutchinson, vol. i. p. 377, n. text in Acts vi. 3, to sanction the 

2 Ibid. right of the people to elect their 

3 A curious fact is mentioned by own ministers. The verse reads, 
D'Israeli, in his Curiosities of Lit- " Wherefore, brethren, look, ye out, 
erature, concerning the Independ- &c., whom ive may appoint over 
ents in England. One Field, who you." In the Pearl Bibles, jj^ was 
printed the Pearl Bibles, received substituted for nve. 

fifteen hundred pounds to corrupt a 



160 THE PURITAN CHURCH. 

yond the snarls of the disaffected, or the greed of the 
avaricious. In their new position, however, as the hired 
servants of exacting masters, they were subjected to all 
the inconveniences of such a relation. Their annual sti- 
pends depended upon the generosity or the illiberality of 
their employers. Cotton Mather, in his day, made bitter 
complaints against the effects of the contract system 
between the clergy and the laity ; saying that the former, 
toorse off even than mechanics^ were sometimes obliged to 
plovj for a subsistence. Even the support contracted to 
be given was not infrequently poorly paid; and, in 1654, 
it was found necessary, by the general court, to pass a 
law compelling the due payment of the salaries of the 
ministers. Indeed, so great did the evil become, that 
the elders revived the primitive custom of the offertory ; 
choosing rather to rely upon the weekly contribution of 
their hearers, made under the influence of religious emo- 
tions, than the performance of their legal contracts. But 
the offertory in their hands was not an act of solemn 
worship ; it was an appeal to the purse only, and, as 
such, it seems to have gathered in but foint and shadowy 
supplies. In Boston, alone, was the evil at all remedied 
by this most venerable rite of the ancient Church ; ^ for 
here resided, for the most part, those gentlemen of the 
colony, whose education and means both inspired them 
with the inclination, and gave them the ability, to keep 
up the dignity of the pastoral office. As a general rule, 
however, the offertory proved insufficient to cure the dis- 
ease ; ^ and the ludicrous disgust of Cotton Mather has 
perpetuated both the arrogance of the elders and the 
stubbornness of their people. 

The foreign relations of the Puritan Church of Mas- 

' Sec Hutchinson, vol. i. p. 376. - Mather. Neal. 



I 



THE PURITAN CHURCH. 161 

sachusetts were somewhat peculiar. Independency, in pakt 
all its forms, was extremely odious to the Presbyterians. — r — ' 
The disciples of Calvin and Beza protested against it, as 
preposterous, and, on the fall of the monarchy, established 
in England the domination of the Presbytery. Their 
parishes had a similar organization to those of the Inde- 
pendents, but here all analogy ceased. The parochial 
eldership was subject to a classis, and the classis was 
subject to a provincial synod ; and the provincial synod 
to a national synod, and the national synod to parliament, 
except in Scotland, where the national synod would allow 
no superior in what they thought fit to call spirituals. 
This graduated scale of church government was better 
suited to the tone of an aristocratic faction, than the sim- 
pler and more austere system of the Independents ; and 
the Presbyterians, forgetting that the founders of their 
religion had no other ordination than what was given to 
the ministers of the Independents, and that the clergy of 
every dissenting body must adopt, in some form, the 
notion of Luther, that every baptized person is a priest, 
continued to treat the Independents as schismatics, not 
only during the rebellion, but until a year after the revo- 
lution, when, " after many mighty and fervent prayers 
unto God," articles of agreement between them were 1692. 
drawn up and signed. The sympathies of the Puritan 
Church of Massachusetts were chiefly with the Inde- 
pendents, who returned the derision of the Presbyterians 
with interest, accusing especially the Scottish Kirk of 
" robbing the particular congregations of Christ of their 
just and lawful privileges."^ But the differences between 
the Puritan Pilgrims and the Presbyterians were chiefly 
on the subjects of government and discipline ; and though 



1 Johnson. 
14* 



162 THE PURITAN CHURCH. 

CHAP, the elders of Massachusetts declined to take any part in 
' — v-^ the doings of the Westminster Assembly, and crushed 
the attempt made by certain ministers, who came over in 
164*3, under the authority of that body, to set up in 
Massachusetts a Presbyterian Church government,^ yet 
they adopted, without hesitation or scruple, their cele- 
brated Confession of Faith. The union in England, 
between the Presbyterians and Independents, existed but 
three years, on account of disputes between the parties 
on " high points of divinity." But the New England 
ministers received the articles of agreement with appro- 
bation, and continued to act upon them. A half century 
of exile cooled the zeal which had converted a mission 
scheme of the Church of England into a bigoted and 
partisan religionism. 
To remedy To correct the cvils of the contract system in the Puri- 
Covenant tan Church various plans were devised, chief among 
which was the famous Covenant. In this ordinance, the 
elders promised, in the presence of Christ, to rule faith- 
fully and courageously ; and the people covenanted to 
obey them, and to submit to them, according to the Word 
of God. This covenant, by means of which the elder 
was able to overcome the timid, and to reassure the 
doubting,^ received a higher consideration in the Puritan 
Church than the sacrament of baptism. It was the only 
door which gave admission into the church, and, through 
that, into the commonwealth. To neglect entering into 
the covenant, says the New England Platform, might 



1 Hutchinson, vol. i. p. 112. to a rich widow, who had left his 

2 In the Preface to Grey's Hiidl- society, said : " Did you not, before 
bras a story is told, illustrating the God and his angels, renew your 
use to wliich the Independent minis- baptismal covenant, and accept me 
tcrs put this covenant. One Dan- as your pastor ;' Docs not Christ 
iel frU/iants, who died in England command jou to obey me, as halving 
worth fifty thousand pounds, writing the rule o'veryou? " 



THE PURITAN CHURCH. 163 

produce the result, that Christ would have no visible, part 
political church. By it, the covenanter surrendered his w-.-^ 
spiritual liberty to his pastor, and excommunication fol- 
lowed its non-observance. He left his conscience behind 
him, on his passage through the ecclesiastical, to reach 
the civil, franchise. The covenant was the foundation on 
which rested his freedom as a man, and his rights as a 
citizen. Since, however, externally, all power in the 
commonwealth was lodged in the hands of the civil mag- 
istrates, to them the elders confided the custody of the 
covenant. The court of assistants, sitting as an ecclesi- 
astical court, could whip, fine, imprison, and banish all 
those who presumed to doubt its reality, or to deny its 
truth. A Mr. Lenthall, who settled in the town of Wey- 
mouth in 1637, at first taught the Catholic doctrine, that • 
baptism is the true entrance into the visible church, and 
opposed " the custom of mutual restipulation." For 
this high offence, he was summoned, as " the chief of a 
faction," to appear before the general court ; and, doubt- 
less, would have met with severe punishment, had he not 
recanted.^ In ways such as this, the elders enforced an 
equivocal unity in their church, and indirectly exercised 
all the powers of an inquisition ; for the magistrates sel- 
dom had any separate will or understanding from them. 
The magistrates punished heresy, but to the elders they 
looked for the meaning of heresy ; they deposed illiterate 
and heterodox preachers, but not without the approving 
nod of a Cotton or a Hooker ; they enforced the observ- 
ance of the two tables, but were encouraged by the 
anathemas of the pulpit. In principle, the exercise of 
these powers was perfectly analogous to the authority 
exerted by the high commission court of England ; the 

1 Hubbard. 



164 THE PURITAN CHURCH. 

only differences were, that in the one case the church 
acted directly, and in the other indirectly ; that the one 
was illegal, and inconsistent with the avowed principles 
of its supporters, the other was Loth legal and consist- 
ent ; in the one court were worn the plain garments of 
the Puritan magistrates, in the other, the lawn and the 
mitre. 

This curious scheme of the elders to preserve uni- 
formity, at the same time that they allowed independence 
in the Puritan Church, received the name of Congrega- 
tionalism.-^ " No injunction^'' declared the law, " shall he 
put upon any churchy in point of doctrine^ discipline, or 
worship^ Far otherwise was the practice. The court 
" entreated of the hretliren and elders to considt and 
advise of one uniform order of discipline in the churches, 
and then to consider how far the magistrates were hound 
to interpose for the preservation of that uniformity and 
peace in the churches'"^ Accordingly, the annals of that 
day are replete with the various interpositions of the 
magistrates in this behalf, which, we may be sure, were 
never made without good advice. The church in Salem 
was a separate organization from the church in Boston ; 
yet the former was severely reprimanded by the civil 
authority, because it settled a teacher whom the great 
body of the elders considered to be heterodox.^ Like- 
wise, Henry Dunster, President of Harvard College, was 
forced to resign liis office, because he presumed to doubt 
the validity of infant baptism.^ Cases of this kind were 
not infrequent in the Puritan Church, nor were they con- 
fined to matters strictly of a doctrinal nature. A jealous 
watch was maintained over all teachings from the pulpit ; 
and we read that the beloved Eliot was " dealt with " by 

' Hutchinson. 3 Sav. Winthrop. 

2 Hazard, Colony Laws. 4 Hubbard. Mather. Ncal. 



THE PURITAN CHURCH. 165 

several of his brethren, because he "laid some blame upon part 
the ministry," in one of his sermons, for the part they took — v — ' 

XT 1 1634. 

m an Indian treaty. 

Behold, then, this church, " like a silly poor maid, sit- Want of 

unity and 

ting" in the wilderness, compassed about with hungry vitality in 

=• ' l' ^ J the church. 

lions, wolves, boars, and bears, and all manner of cruel 
and hurtful beasts, and in the midst of many furious men 
assaulting her every moment." ^ Propped up by the 
covenant on the one side, and by the civil authority on 
the other, the questions to be determined were, whether 
the unity of the churches was consistent with their inde- 
pendence, and their independence with a sound state of 
religion and faith. Not ten years passed away before 
this unity was violently broken, and the faith, borne by 
the Puritan Church from the Old World to the New, was 
tampered with and defaced. The established creeds of 
the Church Catholic having been discarded, and her well- 
settled precedents cast aside, there were, at first, no stand- 
ards of belief but the private opinions of the elders, of 
which there was every shade ; and when, at last, a Con- 
fession of Faith was adopted in general assembly, it did 
not enure to uniformity of belief. " In almost every 
new lustre of years, the church sustained a new assault 
of extraordinary temptation."^ Experience demonstrated, 
that " every man would favor his own way of profes- 
sion." ^ It was found that, " after men of the inost 
unspotted piety had spent ivhole prenticeship of years 
in the faithful^ watchful^ painful service of the churches, 
and had served them day and night tvith prayers, ivith 
tears, ivith fastings, with their most studied sermons and 
tvritings, yet if any zvolf in sheep s clothing came ivith a 
few good tvords among them, the simple souls of many 

1 Sav. Winthrop. 3 Mather. 

■■^ Mather, quoting Luther. 4 Johnson. 



166 THE PURITAN CHURCH. 

vjould not onhj follow the tvolf but, on Ms account, harlc 
at the shepherd^ ^ The state was always ready to give 
its assistance in sucli emergencies, but was often at a 
loss. The question, at such times, was not what to do, 
but what to believe. Several laws against heresy stand 
out in blood-red letters on the statute-book of the com- 
monwealth ; while not less than five synods were held, 
from the arrival of the charter down to the time of its 
abrogation, in which to settle disputed points of doctrine 
and discipline. To follow the progress of the Puritan 
Church, from its assumption of extraordinary purity to 
its acknowledgment of extraordinary weakness and ineffi- 
ciency, is both curious and instructive. Ere it had left 

1630.' the embrace of its "dear mother," it declared that it 
was ooino^ forth into the wilderness to enlarg^e her au- 
thority and to promote her glory.^ Hardly established 

1G33. in its new home, the Puritan Church avowed that its 
principles agreed with the faitli of the Church of Eng- 
land, and that it separated only from her ceremonies and 
discipline.^ Soon, the Antinomian controversies called 

1637. for a synod of all the churches, to pronounce authorita- 
tively upon the conflicting opinions, which distracted 
church and state, and threatened the dissolution of both.^ 
Yet a few years, and the famous synod of Cambridge, 
" taking into consideration the many heresies that were 

1648. daily broaclied," ^ sokunnly adopted the Confession of 
Faith promulgated by the Westminster Assembly, and, 
crushing the serpent that liad crept into the churches of 
Clirist," declared it to be " boly, orthodox, and judi- 
cious." ^ Fourteen years passed away, and the Puritan 

^ Mather. ^ Gorgcs's Description of New 

2 Such was the voice spoken from England. 

the cabin of the Arabella. ** Winthrop's Journal. 

3 Hubbard. Mather. 7 Hubbard, ei:c. 

4 Ibid. 



THE PURITAN CHURCH. 167 

Church was shaken to its centre by a doctrinal strife 
concerning' baptism and communion. Another synod 
was assembled at Boston, by order of the general court ; 1662. 
and the answers it returned to the questions, "who are 
the subjects of baptism "? " and " what is the relation of 
the several churches to each other ] " " were clogged by 
the dissent of several reverend and judicious persons," 
among whom were Chauncey, President of Harvard 
College, and Davenport.^ Again, the general laxity of 
morals, and " visible decay of the power of godliness," 
were the cause of the famous reforming synod, which, 
besides declaring that " a thorough and hearty reforma- 
tion was necessary, in order to obtain peace with God," 
recommended a revision of the New England Platform, 1679. 
and the renewing of the covenant by the churches.^ 
Finally, the same synod, at a second session, promul- 
gated a new Confession of Faith, varying, to some extent, i680. 
from that of Westminster, and corresponding to the one 
set forth by the elders and messengers of the Congrega- 
tional Churches assembled at the Savoy, in London, more 
than twenty years before.^ This last effort of the Puritan 
Church was soon followed by a general lament over the 
apostasy and unbelief of the times. 

These frequent meetings of the elders, or synods, 
although, by a fundamental principle of the Puritan 
Church, they could publish no authoritative decrees, 
show, from that very fact, a failure of the ostentatious 
experiment that Puritanism was trying in the New 
World ; not so much through any important change in 
the articles of belief, as in a perpetual necessity for resus- 
citating and increasing them. The Puritan Church was 
always ready to crumble into a dozen sects ; and it there- 

J Mather. 2 Hubbard, &c. 3 ibid. 



168 THE PURITAN CHURCH. 

CHAP, fore became necessary that the various factions should 

III. , 1 . , . 

" — V — ' confer tog"etJier, and arrive at some common results, in 

order that they might be enforced and established by the 
civil authority. Most of these synods were called by 
order of the magistrates, who thereby professed themselves 
to be in distressing doubt concerning the vital truths of 
religion. Few of the opinions of these synods were 
unanimous, and none were universally regarded, for the 
people followed the elders in diversity of belief. "We 
do not clearly perceive what your covenants are," said 
Maverick and Child, in their manly petition to the gen- 
eral court for religious freedom. " Every church has its 
covenant differing from the others ; some add, and some 
detract ; one church calls it a covenant of grace, a second, 
a branch of it, a third, a profession of the free covenant — 
whence abound an ocean of inconveniences, little profit 
by the ministry, and increase of Anabaptism, heresies, 
and schisms." ' These bold rebukes were the more ill- 
naturedly received as they were well founded in point of 
fact. It was not prejudice, which thus ascribed uncer- 
tainty to the covenant, and an heretical tendency to the 
Puritan religion. The flood-gates of private opinion 
were open, and a plausible speaker of heresies was often 
suj)j)orted by a strong party, in defiance of every effort 
to preserve orthodoxy. Indeed, it was no uncommon 
thing for learned brethren, on their admission to the 
reliofious franchise, " to entertain the churches with nota- 
ble confessions of their own composing." And such was 
the arrogance generated by the chaotic dogmas of Puri- 
tanism, that " young men of low degree " would not 
scruple, in religious discussions, to assault the })ositions 
assumed by the elders and magistrates.^ Thus, unlimited 

• New England's Jonas. 2 Mather. 



THE PURITAN CHURCH. 169 

private judgment in tlie reading of Holy Scripture, and part 
in the formation of notions, (not principles,) prevented ^--^ — ' 
uniformity in the Puritan Churcli, notwithstanding the 
rebukes of synods and the terrors of the law. 

The greatest trial sustained by the Puritan Church The Anti- 

Y .... nomian 

was during " the storm of Antinomian heresies," which iieiesies. 
prevailed in " its second lustre " of years. The mist, 
which involved John Cotton and Henry Vane, the leading 
magistrates in church and state, rapidly spread through 
the commonwealth, and threatened it with a moral pesti- 
lence. Cotton held by far the most influential position 
in the Puritan Church ; and Vane, " a young, inex- 
perienced gentleman," by " the industry of some who 
thought to make a tool of him," had been elected gov- 
ernor, had entirely supplanted Winthrop in the affections 
of the people, and was now their idol.^ Under the coun- 
tenance of these dignitaries, and assisted by the active 
agency of Mrs. Hutchinson and Mr. Wheelwright, mon- 
strous heresies crept into the community, compared with 
which the superstitions of Rome are mild and harmless. 
The strife thus produced was between the majority of 
the elders on the one hand, and a large number of 
" church members " on the other ; and for a long time 
it was uncertain which party would gain the ascendant. 
The magistrates were at first unable to act, because the 
governor was against them ; and they were the more 
embarrassed when relieved of this difficulty, inasmuch as 
the position of Cotton was one of distressing ambiguity. 
Like all other schisms of a religious character, this was 
owing to private judgment. Cotton and Vane did not 
understand religious truth as did Wilson and Winthrop. 
Where resided the legitimate authority to expound, and, 



1 Neal. Hubbard. 
15 



lyO THE PURITAN CHURCH. 

at the same time, enforce, what the truth was*? Why 
had not Cotton as good right to form and to proclaim his 
opinions as all the other elders ? 

It was an early custom in Boston among the people 
to meet together once a week, and discuss the sermons 
they had heard on the Lord's Day. Although by this 
practice they were often " entangled in doctrines too 
high for them," their example was soon followed by the 
women ; and Anne Hutchinson, a great admirer of Cot- 
1636. ton, soon gathered weekly audiences at her house, where, 
acting upon the rule of the Apostle, that " the elder 
women are to teach the younger," she expounded the dis- 
quisitions of her pastor. So long as these meetings 
were confined to exposition, little notice vA^as taken of 
them. " All the faithful embraced her conference, and 
blessed God for her fruitful discourses."^ But they soon 
began to occupy the broader field of censure and criti- 
cism. Towards the close of the year, Mrs. Hutchinson, 
whose disci})les had increased to one hundred })ersons, 
began to edify on her o\ati account ; and, accusing the 
elders, with the exception of Cotton, of preaching a cov- 
enant of works instead of a covenant of grace, announced 
to her admirers that no degree of sanctification was any 
evidence of justification, and that all genuine justification 
in a true believer consisted in a personal union with the 
Holy Ghost.^ This assertion clothed the opinions of her 
party with peculiar force and dignity, since it ascribed to 
their vagaries, however absurd and inconsistent, a divine 
origin and purpose, paramount to the written* word. In 
the strength of this assum])tion, it was declared that "the 
spirit was not to be tried by the Scripture, but the Scrip- 
ture by the spirit." 

* Cotton. Sec Hutchinson, vol. ^ F.mcrson's History of the First 
i. p. 57. Church. 



THE PURITAN CHURCH. 171 

The " good women insinuated these fancies into their part. 
husbands, screening- them under the venerable name of "^^^ — ' 
Mr. Cotton ; " and they were soon noised throughout 
the Puritan Church. The elders, while " sounding their 
silver trumpets, heard the rattling sound of drums." ^ 
These strange delusions "crept not only into families, but 
into the legislature itself; " and the elders, alarmed at 
the rapid progress they were making, assembled in Bos- 
ton, to consult with the magistrates. Their anxiety 
increased, when they learned to whom the community 
was indebted for the new theological dogmas. They dis- 
cussed the questions with Cotton, and his answers were 
full of " subtilty ; " they addressed themselves to Vane, 
and he not only defended Mrs. Hutchinson, but avowed 
it as his belief that a personal union existed between the 
Holy Ghost and a believer, similar to that between the 
divine and human natures of Christ. Nor was Vane 
alone even amongst the magistrates. Coddington, the 
wealthiest of his compeers, and Dummer, and HofFe, 
were not ashamed to own Mrs. Hutchinson as their 
teacher. Anxious to compose the troubled state of their 
church, the elders racked their brains to meet subtilty 
with subtilty. They demonstrated that no such union in 
a believer was possible, since it would make him god- 
man ; and, finding- that this logic was ineffectual, they 
deliberately cast a shadow over the doctrine of the Holy 
Trinity, by sacrificing the personality of the Third Mem- 
ber in the blessed Godhead. For it was agreed that the 
word person is a term of " human invention," and that 
the personality of the Holy Spirit could not be found in 
the Primitive Churches, for three hundred years after 
Christ.^ But this pliability of the elders did not arrest 

' Johnson. vTroaraaig, or subsistence, and not 

2 It was said that the Greek word npoaurtov. Winthrop's Journ. Ma- 
used in the New Testament was ther. Neal. 



17^ THE PURITAN CHURCH. 

CHAP, the growingf divisions. Other " crafty " questions ^rew 
^-'-v^-^ out of the controversy, and it hegan to be maintained 
tliat no man could entertain a reasonable hope of salva- 
tion, unless he had a divine revelation assuring- him of 
acceptance. " It was incredible what a very calenture 
the devil raised on this odd occasion." The weakness of 
sectarianism was never more strikingly exhibited. All 
but three or four of the congregation of Boston drew off 
from the orthodox party, and ranged themselves in the 
ranks of the heretics. " People who had followed their 
ministers three thousand miles, through ten thousand 
deaths, now took up such prejudices, not only against 
their doctrines, but against their persons, that they did 
never care to hear them, or to see them any more." 
Nor were these Antinomian troubles confined to Massa- 
chusetts ; to such a degree was the Colony of Plymouth 
affected, says Neal, that " thet/ starved aivay all their old 
mmtste7'S, and set up mechanics in their roomJ' A curi- 
ous spectacle, truly, to see the Puritan Pilgrims, scarcely 
seven years after their farewell letter to the chief shep- 
herds of the Church of England, divided among them- 
selves, in relation to the very object for which they had 
sacrificed so much ! 

Here, then, was a crisis, when " the cracks and flaws 
of the new building portended a fall."' Although " the 
ancient and received truth was darkened^ God's name 
hlasphemed^ the church's glory diminished, man)/ f/odhj 
grieved, and many tvretches hardened,'' the sectaries de- 
clared that the doctrines they maintained were- regularly 
deducible from the sermons of Cotton." Nor was Cotton 
able to clear his reputation. The supposed points of 
difference between him and tlu; elders of the orthodox 
party, were reduced to sixteen heads, and his opinion 

' Shepherd's Lamentation. 2 Shepherd's Memoirs. Neal. 



THE PURITAN CHURCH. 17^ 

upon them was requested ; and though " some doubts be part 
well cleared," in others "he gave not satisfaction."^ The ' — -^-^ 
warmth of the contending parties increased, as the points 
of difference multiplied. " You are legal preachers," 
said the advocates of reform, sneeringly, to the elders ; 
whereas we are for free grace, and the teachings of the 
Spirit." We " have not heard," was the taunt, " a pure 
gospel sermon from any of you."^ No condition was 
too mean, no ignorance too glaring, to disqualify "church 
members" from taking an active part in the contest — 
"all men's mouths were full" of polemical divinity, from 
the butcher at his shambles to the magistrate in council. 
The whole church resolved itself into two parties ; the 
maxim of the one being the covenant of works, and, of 
the other, the covenant of grace.^ Even the army de- 
signed for the destruction of the Pequods partook of the 
prevailing frenzy ; and refused to slaughter the Indians, 
because they were under a covenant of works. ^ 

The beginning of the next year was ushered in by a 1637. 
general fast, in which, notwithstanding the slough that 
was apparently swallowing them up, the elders, with 
amusing arrogance, did not forget the " popish ceremo- 
nies and doctrines" with which "the bishops were mak- 
ing sad havoc in their native country." ^ It fell to the 
lot of Wheelwright to preach upon this occasion, who, to 
the amazement and wrath of his brother elders, harangued 
against all persons who " walked in a covenant of 
works." He vehemently denounced them as Antichrists. 
He compared them to Jews, Herods, and Philistines, and 
exhorted his hearers to regard them as their greatest 
enemies.^ But, while each party appealed to Heaven to 

> Winthrop's Journal. 4 Mather. Neal. Chalmers. 

2 Johnson. 5 Winthrop's Journal. 

3 Winthrop's Journal. Hubbard. 6 Weld's Rise, &c. of Antino- 
Neal. mianism. 

15* 



174' THE PURITAN CHURCH. 

CHAP, cnliirliten the darkness of the other, neither nejjlected any 

III. ^ . . 

— r — ' human means to secure ultimate victory. Vane, who, 

douhtless, emharked in the contention more to secure the 
leadership of a party, than for any real interest he felt in 
the struggle, had, on the preceding December, resigned 
his office, on pretext of important letters of recall from 
Enoland. Whether this movement on the Puritan chess- 
board was owing to a certain political sagacity, which 
enabled him to foresee the final issue of the game, and 
so to save himself the mortification of defeat ; or whether 
it was an artful step to increase the general estimation of 
his worth, by pretending that he was wanted for more 
important duties at home, it is not easy to determine. 
The latter was the effect produced. With that dissinm- 
lation which characterized him, Vane seized the oppor- 
tunity, when one of his colleagues, friendly to his cause, 
" lamented the loss of such a governor in the time of such 
clanger both from French and Indians,'' to enact a little 
scene in the general court, which, however sincere it may 
have seemed to the public, must have caused greiit annoy- 
ance to the leaders in the opposition, who saw its trans- 
parency. Bursting into tears, he declared that though 
his " outward estate " should be ruined by his remaining, 
he would have " hazarded it all rather than have gone 
from them at such a time," were it not that he feared the 
inevitable danger of God's judgments upon the common- 
v)ealth, for the differences and dissensions he sair among 
them, and the scandalous imjmtations brought upon him- 
self. The general court was inclined to accept his resig- 
nation ; but " the church " in Boston would not consent 
to lose him ; and, in a meeting held for that purpose, 
".agreed that it was not necessary for the measures 
alleged that he should depart." Vane pretended to be 
overj)owered, and expressed himself to be an ^ obedient 



THE PURITAN CHURCH. I'JS 

son of the church ; " and the g-eueral court thought it part 
advisable to allow him to recall his resignation. Such ^ — -, — ' 
manoiuvres would excite ridicule, were not their hypocrisy 
too profane.^ 

Meantime, it began to be evident that power would 
finally lodge with those who had the control of the gov- 
ernment, and to triumph at the approaching elections 
both parties began to bend their energies. A ship being 
about to sail for England, Cotton seized the oppor- February. 
tunity to gather from the voyage some future advantage. 
" Tell our friends," said he to the passengers at a public 
meeting, " that all our strife is about magnifying the 
grace of God. Some sccJc to advance the grace of God 
toivards us, and some the grace of God vjithin us. The 
lovers, therefore, of the doctrines of grace will he here 
sure of a cordial reception.'' This artful solicitation for 
aid was not allowed by the "covenant of works" party 
to pass unnoticed. Wilson, their champion, spoke after 
Cotton, and so obscured the subject in the intricacies of 
sanctification and justification, that " no man could tell 
where any difference was, except some few who knew 
the bottom of the matter."^ This speech gave great 
offence to Cotton, and widened the breach between the 
two parties. At the general court in March, it was 
ascertained that " the greater number of tlie country 
members were sound," and the opportunity was seized 
by the " sober party " to show their resentment towards 
the disturbers of their peace. They heavily fined "one 
of the inferior sort," for proclaiming that the elders 
preached a covenant of works ; and, though they durst - 
not meddle with Cotton, they cited Wheelwright, who 
was of lesser note, to appear before the court, to answer 

1 See the whole account of this In 2 Winthrop's Journal. 

Hutchinson, vol. i. pp. 55, ^6. 



176 THE PURITAN CHURCH. 

CHAP, for his sermon delivered at " the last fast," and, " after 

, ^ much dehate," afljudg-ed him guilty of sedition. It was 

in vain that the governor protested against this decree ; 
it was in vain that the " church " in Boston called upon 
the legislature to beware what they were doing, and to 
remember that the Apostle, St. Paul, was called a pesti- 
lent fellow, and a mov^er of sedition. The only indul- 
gence yielded to this clamor was the postponement of 
Wheelwright's sentence.^ 

But the court of election was soon to take place ; and 
such were the bitter feelings engendered among the 
" church members " in Boston, that, " for fear of a riot," 
the conservatives moved an order that it should be held 
at Cambridge. This measure only served to exasperate 
" the faction " yet more ; and Vane, beside himself with 
vexation, refused to put the motion, which duty was per- 
formed by the deputy governor, Endecott. The motion 
was carried, however ; and nothing was left the other 
party but to canvass and electioneer during the short 
recess of the court. They made the best use of their oppor- 
tunity, proclaiming loudly the unfair course pursued by 
their opponents, and insinuating, with great address, their 
wishes for '•'• gospel magistrates"^ Nor were they wholly 
i^iay. unsuccessful. The court of election was a scene of dis- 
order and tumult. " Fierce speeches " were made, and 
some of the religious partisans even proceeded to blows. 
The governor attempted to introduce a petition from the 
freemen of Boston, in behalf of Wheelwright, ^v•hich the 
court declined to hear until the elections were over. The 
court endeavored to act upon the elections, which the 
governor refused to countenance, unless the petition was 
first heard.^ While in this state of confusion, Wilson, 

1 Winthrop. Neal. Mather. 3 Savage's Winthrop. Johnson. 

2 Ncal. 



THE PURITAN CHURCH. 177 

elder of the " First Church " in Boston, harangued the taRT 
freemen, beseeching them to remember that tliey had ^ — ■' — ' 
assembled to use an honorable franchise, and not to riot 
like a mob.^ This reasonable sarcasm, though shouted 
from the top of a tree, was received by his party N\itli 
applause ; and, drowning the angry remonstrances of 
" the faction " in loud cries for election, they proceeded, 
with the deputy governor at their head, to choose the offi- 
cers of government. The result was decisive in their 
favor ; and Vane, Coddington, and Hoffe, " the heretical 
magistrates," were left out of office. The freemen of 
Boston revenged themselves, by returning them as their 
representatives to the general court. 

Though provoked by repeated marks of indignity, the 
new government at first made use of no vigorous meas- 
ures to suppress the prevailing anarchy. Their power 
was sufficient : the question was, how to use it. Cotton 
stood in the way, an insurmountable obstacle. Like its 
namesake in England, Boston in Massachusetts loved and 
reverenced its able teacher. Something, however, was 
to be done. Another day of fasting and humiliation was 
appointed ; and, to counteract the effect of Cotton's invi- 
tation to " the lovers of grace," laivs were ^^assecl inflict- 
ing penalties upon all citizens ivho entertained strangers 
from England^ or allowed them the use of Jiouses and 
lands, 2vithout license ! ^ The slaughter of the Pequods, 
which seems to have been regarded as a favorable sign 
from heaven by "the orthodox party," ^ inspired the gov- 
ernment with, fresh ardor. Vane sailed for England soon 
after his defeat, accompanied by a prophecy from an 



' Hutchinson. from acquiring the rights of citizen- 

2 Hutchinson. Emerson's First ship. feee Sav. Winthrop, vol. i. 

Church. Under this intolerant law, p. 232. 

emigrants were actually prevented ^ Shepherd's Memoirs. 



178 THE PURITAN CHURCH. 

CHAP. " eminent minister," that he would sooner or later be 

III. ' 

^^-r — ' hanged ; an event worthy to be noted, says the historian, 

and which had its accomplishment not long after, on 
Tower Hill, in London.^ His absence was sensibly felt 
by " the faction," which, however, lost none of its acri- 
mony. Cotton was obscure ; Wheelwright was incorri- 
gible ; and Mrs. Hutchinson, from an expounder of ser- 
mons, had become a prophetess. Her disciples now 
denied, among other truths, the obligation of the moral 
law, the immortality of the soul, and the resurrection of 
the dead ; and a divine revelation had assured her of the 
utter destruction of the Puritan Commonwealth. 
Condemn- At this crisis, it was resolved to resort to rigforous 

ed by a . . '^ 

synod. measures. The Puritan Church was in a state of chaos, 
'' and the truth had no legitimate channel by which to reach 
the ear of the state. All had quarrelled with her gentle 
precepts ; and elders and magistrates were alike uncer- 
tain in position, and, consequently, powerless in action. 
As a first step towards order, a synod of all the elders 
was assembled, to determine, if possible, the orthodox 
faith, and to distinguish it from the prevailing errors 
that had crept into the community. In the Primitive 
Church, when faith was bright and strong, Christianity 
shrunk from the presence of a doubt. A single heresy, 
whenever it exhibited itself, was sufficient to summon 
from the four corners of Christendom a cloud of wit- 
nesses, who, mighty in truth, would cast it forth as an 
unclean thing ! Behold these zealous Puritans, hardly 
yet weaned from the mother that bore them, and with 
August, the experience of scarcely '• a lustre of years," sitting in 
judguient on " eighty-two blasphemous, heretical, and 
erroneous " principles, which, under their own system of 

1 Hubbard. 



THE PURITAN CHURCH. 179 

culture, had sprung up on the virgin soil of Massachu- part 
setts I Three weeks of heated discussion were consumed ' — y — ' 
by this synod. The angriness of disputation was re- 
lieved only by the obscurity of expression. The contro- 
versialists lost themselves in the most cloudy regions of 
abstruse theology, and dealt in terms as vague as they 
were incomprehensible. The delegation from the Boston 
Church contested the ground inch by inch. They denied 
the existence of so many errors, and called for witnesses 
and parties, which were refused, because the assembly 
" had nothing to do with persons, but with doctrines 
only." The former were reserved for the civil authori- 
ties. The prevailing errors were finally condemned ; but 
the Boston delegates jprotested against the proceeding^ as 
'^^ a reproach upon the country" and ^ for the ?}wst part, 
departed from the asscmUg} 

The hardest task yet remained, which was to effect a 
compromise with Cotton. He had declined to join in 
the decree against the Antinomian opinions, although 
he pronounced many of them " absurd, heretical, and 
blasphemous." But, with Wheelwright, he maintained 
that " union to Christ preceded faith in him." This 
opinion was diligently combated by the assembly, and 
much time was spent in written airguments to show its 
fallacy on the one side, and to prove its truth on the 
other. But the pen was in the end superseded by the 
tongue, and elaborate logic by " open dispute." During 
one dark day, " questions, answers, replies, returns, and 
rejoinders," with all the subtilty of special pleading, flew 
thick and fast between the contending parties. They 
separated at night, with mutual anxiety. If Cotton 
continues obdurate, was, perhaps, the reflection of his 

^ Hubbard. Mather. Ncal. Winthrop's Journal. Johnson. Hutchinson. 



180 



THE PURITAN CHURCH. 



Banish- 
ment of 
the Anti 
nomian 
leaders. 



opponents, our cliurch will lapse into heresy ; for " lie 
has such an insinuating- and melting way in his preach- 
ing-, that he usually carries his very adversary captive, 
after the triumphant chariot of his rhetoric." ^ On the 
other hand, this able man might well have feared that he 
was endangering his influence, by fruitless opposition to 
overwhelming- numbers. He had no wish to carry his 
cause to the extent of a theological Marathon. Such 
considerations as these induced both parties to peace. 
Cotton made overtures, in mysterious terms, which were 
" greedily and joyfully " accepted by the synod ; and, in 
language " unintelligible and ambiguous," was welcomed 
back to the bosom of the Puritan Church.^ 

The flight of Vane and the surrender of Cotton 
restored the Puritan Church to a safe position. The 
bold outlines of truth began again to appear through the 
breaking mists. Tlie elders having now denounced the 
weekly assemblies of Mrs. Hutchinson, they were for- 
September. bidden by the magistrates ; and time was allowed, in 
order that the action of the synod inh/ht jnir if fj the moral 
atmosphere of the community. But when it was found 
that the fiiction " persisted in their opinions," and that 
neither Hutchinson nor Wheelwright would submit to 
the judgments of the synod, it was considered that the 
longer existence of their party was hazardous to the gen- 
eral safety. Wheelwright, already under judgment for 
sedition, was disfranchised and banished ; and, in Decem- 
ber, Mrs. Hutchinson underwent the same sentence, with 
several of the inhabitants of Boston, who had signed a 
seditious libel in Wheelwright's favor. Nor was this all. 
An ajipcal had been tbreatened to the king, by the prin- 
cipal sulVerers ; and, from fear that some violent move- 



1 Huhhaid. tliis retraction, Is admitted by all his 

2 The iiibinceritv of Cotton, In admirers. 



THE PURITAN CHURCH. 181 

ment might be made in their behalf, should it be pre- part 
sented, for such a thing was " accounted perjury " after ' — v — 
the freeman's oath, about sixty of the chief citizens of 
Boston were disarmed, together with many inhabitants of 
the adjoining towns.^ Outlawed, but not disheartened, 
the leaders in this famous schism, with a long train of 
admirers, fled to the hospitable shelter of Roger Wil- 
liams, whose soul was too large for persecution. There, 
under his protection, they colonized an island in the Nar- 
ragansett Bay, and aided in founding the gallant little 
republic, which glories in having led the van of religious 
liberty in New England. But she, the " wretched Jeza- 
bel," who was regarded as the author of the Antinomian 
delusions; whom Cotton blessed in prosperity, and anath- 
ematized in adversity; whom Vane first reverenced, and 
then forsook ; whom " the church " in Boston once hon- 
ored, and afterwards excommunicated ; she, whose stern 
and masculine nn'nd carried Wheelwright an unwilling 
captive in her delusions,^ and triumphed over the tender 
affections of a wife and mother ; left behind her a name 
which was long regarded in Massachusetts with fear and 
tremblinff. For the veng-eance of Heaven seemed to 
pursue her after she left the Puritan Commonwealth. 
Wonderful stories were whispered among the housewives 
of the "monstrous births" of which she was delivered in 
the place of her exile ; and her tragical end furnished 
many a godly father with a useful moral, on which to 
expatiate by his fireside during the howling of a New 
England winter. 

It had been a pleasing incident to relate, if Cotton, 

1 By an early colony law, it was death. Wheelwright 'voluntarily re- 
required of all the inhabitants of the canted ; and, in a letter to the gov- 
commonwealth that they should be ernor, apologized for having " ad- 
provided with arms. hered to persons of a corrupt judg- 

2 A year after Mrs. Hutchinson's ment." 

16 



182 THE PURITAN CHURCH. 

CHAP, who saved himself hv insincerity, had soothed the exile 
III. ^ , , •' •' . 

> — Y — ' of his old parishioners, hy extondino;" to them his sym- 
pathy. He had heen partially instrumental in leading 
them astray ; and, in carrying out his doctrines to their 
legitimate results, " blasphemy and error," they but exer- 
cised the same right which he claimed when he forsook 
England, and renounced the cliurch which had nourished 
him in infancy, and intrusted him in manhood with the 
care of an important benefice. Alas for the weakness of 
1638. human nature ! A year had scarcely elapsed from the 
banishment of the Antinomians, and the Puritan Church 
felt that it had received a serious blow. The " decay of 
religion," and the lassitude of " professors," were the 
reaction of strife, and the consequence of victory. A 

December, general fast was appointed ; and, as if to do penance for 
his former errors. Cotton ascended the sacred tribune, 
and publicly bewailed his sloth and credulity. He took not 
upon himself the burden of his errors, but declared that, 
like the rest of the community, he had been deluded, and 
that " the ftiction " had been guilty of deceit in making 
him their stalking-horse. To banish such seducers, said 
he, was just ; but beware how you send forth with them 
those who have been misled, or who have sinned from a 
misguided conscience. Such persons should be referred 
to the church for treatment ; and, if their cases prove to 
be past remedy, let them he impriwncd ; for if you cast 
them oiit^ ivho will receive them ? -^ 

Subse- Antinomianism was quelled, but church and state had 

quent con- _ ^ 

riition of nearly been rent in pieces. " The fiiction " revenged 

tlic I'lintan -^ *^ ... 

Church, themselves by reproaching Cotton for his desertion, many 
of them maintaining to the last that they held nothing 
but what he taught. They called hini a timorous man, 

' Winthrop's Journal. Mather. Ncal. Hubbard, kc. 



\ 



THE PURITAN CHURCH. 183 

and a deceiver, and one that had lost his insight into the part 
gospel. One, " more witty than the rest," sent him a ' — ^ — ' 
pound of candles, hidding his servant tell him that it was 
because he wanted light.^ This sorry joke shows that 
Cotton's insincerity had lost him the public confidence, 
which he never afterwards fully recovered. In truth, 
there seemed to be a want of that general trust, which 
alone marks a healthy state of the public mind. Vigilant 
sentinels were now posted in the Puritan camp, and a 
secret police spared no pains to prevent future disorders. 
Though the elders had no actual bond of spiritual unity, 
they were sufficiently united in a conmion enterprise to 
set their faces against dangerous innovations. By the 
continual multiplication of stringent laws, they succeeded 
in preserving their church from another division like the 
Antinomian. And that wound rapidly healed ; but the 
rapidity of its cure was the sign of internal unsound- 
ness. A schism in religious bodies has seldom been rad- 
ically cured by a synodical decree, or an act of the legis- 
lature. The Puritan Church now presented a firm front 
against innovation ; but had any one been gifted with 
penetrating vision, he would have perceived that, beneath 
a fair outside, a general indifference to religion was grad- 
ually spreading, which, sooner or later, would break out 
into open immorality. And from the Antinomian to the 
reforming synod, from the fierce discussion of dogmas to 
the general laxity of morals, was not quite half a century. 
The statute-book of the commonwealth, during this 
period, groaned under the severity of laws against error, 
heresy, and schism. Deaths, banishments, whippings, im- 
prisonments, and fines, are scattered throughout its leaves, 
and meet the eye at every turn. And this was liberty 



1 Neal. 



tisin 



184 THE PURITAN CHURCH. 

OF CONSCIENCE ! This was the Gospel Church ! This 
was tliat new dispensation of truth, which went forth in 
its pride to the wihlerness, uncorrupted hy traditions and 
superstitions, and which, after years of anxious toil, could 
produce only the apples of Sodom as the fruit of its 
lahors ! 
Divisions The Antiuomian schism of the Puritan Churcli was 

on the sub- /» • • i 

jectofbap- the consequence of private judgment; but the questions 
1656. which arose a few years later, in relation to the sacra- 
ment of baptism, were owing to an incomplete system of 
theology. The former divided elders from the j)eople ; 
the latter created discord among the elders themselves. 
Actuated by the same spirit, which had embraced with 
ferocious zeal the doctrines of Election and Perseverance, 
the Puritan Pilgrims denied the sacrament of baptism to 
the children of all persons who were not in covenant with 
some one of their churches. In the infancy of the 
commonwealth, this intolerant principle passed without 
opposition. Then, all were under the covenant who 
were freemen, and the freemen alone constituted the 
church. But, in process of time, when the first blush of 
enthusiasm had passed away, the state began to outgrow 
the church, and the nakedness of the former protruded 
through the garment that had once fitted it so well. 
People multiplied, and their native-born children began 
to grow into manhood, and to marry. Embarrassing 
questions now arose for the decision of the elders : Who 
are "the covenant seed" which are entitled to baptism'? 
Are the grandchildren of the Cottons and the Winthrops, 
the pious founders of New England Puritanism, to be 
denied the benefits of this ordinance, and their souls 
jeopardized, because their immediate parents have never 
"joined the churches," nor sought admission to the Lord's 
Supper ] If the affirmative issue were maintained, the 



THE PURITAN CHURCH. 185 

Puritan Commonwealth would fall ; if the negative, the part 
Puritan Church would abandon its first principles. This > — r — ■ 
startling- dilemma, which first embarrassed the church in 
Connecticut, soon became a source of uneasiness to the 
people throughout New England.^ 

It was necessary that this question should be speedily 
settled. Dissatisfaction began to arise, that the children 
of baptized persons were treated as without the pale of 
Christianity, because their parents had not subscribed the 
covenant, which was the only known entrance into the 
Puritan Church. An embassy was sent from Con- 
necticut to Massachusetts, not to frame treaties of peace, 
nor to invite to a warlike coalition, but to negotiate some 
plan, by which Puritanism might be extricated from its 
perplexing position.^ The subject was discussed with 
great earnestness and zeal. It was important not only 
to unravel the present snarl, but also to anticipate the 
future differences that might occur, and clear them up 
" unto universal satisfiiction." The question was viewed 
in every possible light, and the results of this singular 
conference between Massachusetts and Connecticut were 
twenty-one comprehensive questions, drawn up with elab- 
orate precision, for the action of a synod. To meet this 
emergency, " the ablest ministers " of both colonies were 
assembled in Boston, where, after a session of two weeks, i657. 
they returned answers to the questions proposed, more 
subtle than ingenuous, and more learned than intelligible. 
In general, however, the strictness of the early usage 
was understood to be relaxed, and by the obscure fiction 
of a " deputy covenant," which supposed the immediate 
parent, on certain conditions, to be a sort of conduit, 
through whom the eflncacy of the original covenant was 

1 Hubbard. Mather. Neal. 2 Hubbard. 

16* 



June. 



186 THE PURITAN CHURCH. 

transmitted to his children, it was endeavored to answer 
the exigencies of the state, without violating the princi- 
ples of the church. 

The cautious obscurity of this concession, however, did 
not prove effectual. The synod, which thus sat in solemn 
conclave, (hd not include all the elders who were inter- 
ested in the discussion ; and the opinions it gave, even 
had they been satisfactory, were not binding. Many of 
those, who were "most forward and ready to promote" 
these opinions, " never durst adventure upon the practice" 
of them, for fear of making breaches in their parishes,^ 
and the font remained dry for all but the children of 
church members. The Puritan Church exhibited the 
curious phenomenon of a portion of the elders fearing to 
teach what they avowed to be the truth, lest they should 
create discord, or endanger their own places. No won- 
der the Quakers, who were now suffering persecution, 
questioned the divine mission of a system that could so 
readily sacrifice truth to expediency ! No wonder the 
Anabaptists began to grow uneasy, and to calculate the 
value of an ordinance which, with every generation of 
elders, altered somewhat in character, and about which 
was displayed such a variety of opinions ! For, in truth, 
elder was divided against elder, pastor against people, and 
parish against parish. 

The synod of 1657 seemed to have little effect beyond 
increasing debate and creating confusion. People began 
to ask themselves whether, if children were refused baptism 
because their parents were not in full communion, the doors 
of heaven were not virtually closed upon their posterity 
forever.^ Many could, in such case, foretell the end of 
" the gospel church " before the close of the century that 

1 Hubbard. Mather. 2 Mather. Ncal. 



THE PURITAN CHURCH. 187 

had given it birth. While the Puritan Church was thus part 
" strongly divided," the general court found it necessary - — v-^ 
to assemble a second synod, composed of the elders and i*56i. 
messengers of all the churches in Massachusetts. Tell 
us, said the court, almost despairingly, " who are the 
subjects of baptism," and what manner of union ought 
to exist between the churches of Christ. But to answer 
these questions was no easy task. " There were scarce 
any of the congregational principles but what were layen 
at by some or other of the assembly." ' However, after a 
controversy " managed with too much animosity," a decis- 
ion was obtained from this chaos of opinions and views, 
which settled that full communion of the parent was not 
necessary to the baptism of the child ; and that all the 
churches of Christ in New England ought to enter into 
solemn covenant to be united in the same faith and order, 
to walk by the same rule, and to exercise the same ordi- 
nances for the same ends.^ 

That this decision should have been unanimous was 
impossible. It was the conclusion of a majority alone. 
Even freedom of debate was stifled by the tyranny of 
party. Those who upheld the strictness of the old rule, 
and who desired to preserve Puritanism consistent, even if 
thereby they destroyed its popularity, were borne down 
by force of numbers, and stigmatized as dissenters. 
Indignant at such usage, they resorted to their pens, and 
undertook to discredit the action of the synod " accord- 
ing to its own principles." The President of Harvard 
College took the field, and published a dissenting work, 
which he boldly called Anti-Synodalia.^ That " reverend 
person," Mr. Davenport, also appeared in print as the 

1 Letter of Eleazer Mather to 2 Hubbard. Mather. Neal. 
Mr. Davenport. See Hutchinson, '^ Ibid, 
vol. i. p. 2o6, n. 



188 THE PURITAN CHURCH. 

CHAP, champion of orthodox Puritanism. Not only was the 

III. . 

'^-Y — ' decision of the first question proposed by the general 

court considered by the dissenters as an innovation " with- 
out scripture warrant," but the answer to the second 
question was regarded by them as having " a direct 
tendency to undermine the liberty of the churches." ^ 
Indeed, so ably were these arguments managed, that it 
was thought advisable to check their circulation ; and a 
censorship of the only press in Massachusetts was estab- 

16G2. lished by the general court. The whole control of print- 
October. . , . Ill • -1 

ing was vested in -one eider ana one magistrate, witliout 

whose consent no work could be published in the Puritan 
Commonwealth, even though it issued from the halls of 
its solitary seat of learning.^ 

It hardly needed this rigorous measure to produce 
final harmony. By degrees, many of the refractory 
churches adopted the opinions of the synod, conscious, 
perhaps, that any other decision would enure unfavorably 
for posterity, to whom, in bequeathing the ancient usage 
of their communion, they would also bequeathe an heri- 
tage of discord and trouble. Yet, the gradual assimila- 
tion to a more liberal theory, in this respect, was inter- 
rupted by another remarkable strife, which once more 
threatened the Puritan Church with complete anarchy. 
Anxious to preserve the prestige of their society, the 
" First Church in Boston," ere the remains of their 
beloved pastor, Wilson, were cold in the grave, invited 
1G70. Dav('iij)()rt, of New Haven, to take his place, who, though 
in extreme old age, retained the rigidness of his faith, 
amid the growing degeneracies of advancing genera- 



1 Hubbard. " Imitation of Christ," by Thomas- 

- Colony Laws. Hutchinson. i\-Kcnipis, '* // being icritien by a 

The press was wholly supprcsseii in Popish minister.^'' 

i668, for publishing the famous 



THE PURITAN CHURCH. 189 

tions. His acceptance of this call produced an immediate part 
schism, the younger portion of his new charge drawing • — v-— ' 
off, and forming a separate society hy themselves. Bitter 
contentions arose. Seventeen of the elders protested 
against Davenport and his colleagues, in whose proceed- 
ings there does not seem to have been that fairness and 
simplicity which the gospel requires,^ and publicly charged 
them with artifice and fraud. A direct denial was 
given, so that, as usual, the general court was obliged to 
interfere, and a conmiittee was appointed to inquire into 
the " cause of the prevailing evils." The report of this 
committee affords a curious illustration of the illiberal 
spirit of the prevailing religion. " Declension from the 
primitive foundation work," it declared " innovation in 
doctrine and worship, opinion and practice, an invasion 
of the rights, liberties, and privileges of churches, an 
usurpation of a lordly and prelatical power over God's 
heritage, a subversion of gospel order, and all this with 
a dangerous tendency to the utter devastation of these 
churches, turning the pleasant gardens of Christ into a 
wilderness, and the inevitable and total extirpation of the 
pillars and principles of the congregational way ; these 
are the leaven, the corrupting gangrene, the infecting, 
spreading plague, the provoking image of jealousy, set 
up before the Lord, the accursed thing, which hath pro- 
voked divine wrath, and doth further threaten destruc- 
tion." This bitter denunciation, which bears the marks 
of having been prepared by the magistrates, concluded 
by declaring the Third Church in Boston irregular, ille- 
gal, and disorderly. The great body of the elders were 
extremely irritated at this presumptuous report, and, at I67i. 



the next session of the court, "desired that it might be 



1 Hutchinson. 



May. 



190 THE PURITAN CHURCH. 

CHAP, remembered that the people were led forth into this wil- 
- — < — • derness, not only by the hands of Moses, but also of 
Aaron." And, happily for them, the changes made by 
the freemen at this election showed that the influence of 
this powerful class, however different from that exerted 
by their predecessors, continued unabated. The proceed- 
ings of the last court were virtually condemned, and the 
Third Church was triumphantly established. 

We behold in this disunion spirit nothing that can 
excite surprise. A dissenting system of religion, whose 
very basis is the right of private judgment, cannot pre- 
serve any settled faith entire. It nmst progress with the 
people who profess it, or it will soon become obsolete. 
Yet, doubtless, the bitterness of strife in the Puritan 
Church was somewhat softened by " the setting of many 
brifjht stars in New England's firmament." The great 
Cotton, first among his brethren, was slumbering in his 
grave at the time the ecclesiastical system, he did so nmch 
to build up and establish, was nearly rent in twain on the 
subject of baptism ; and the aged Wilson, the revered 
Davenport, and the venerable Chauncey, upon whose 
heads had been laid the apostolic hands of the bishops 
they afterwards renounced, were in the next ten years, 
together with many of their younger brethren, " called 
from Christ's jdough." A new generation of elders was 
rapidly succeeding the men of Oxford and Ciunbridge. 
The Puritan Church was falling into other and feebler 
hands ; and the compatriots of Winthrop and Endecott 
and Vane and Dudley, they upon whose ample shoulders 
rested the glory and the shame of New England Puritan- 
ism, were soon known in the land only by tradition, and 
by the quaint, uncouth epitaphs, that marked where their 
remains tranquilly reposed. 



THE PURITAN CHURCH. 191 



Part II. 

Intolerant Spirit of the Puritan Church — Rise of the Familists — Perse- 
cution of Gorton — The Quakers — The Anabaptists — Persecutions in 
Massachusetts, Violations of the Charter, and of the Laws of England 
— Inconsistent with the avowed Claims of Puritanism. 

We now invite attention to another department of the part 
subject under re\ iew, and, having shown the chaotic con- ^ — . — ' 
dition of the Puritan Theology, we shall proceed to the 
consideration of its intolerant practice. On this latter 
point, certainly, a wonderful harmony characterized the 
Puritan Church ; and though its elders loved to engage in 
" theological logomachies " among themselves, they were 
always ready for a friendly reconciliation over the ruins 
of a rival fanaticism. It is, indeed, curious to observe 
how men of a similar religious persuasion will, in times 
of external tranquillity, trouble the waters of their own 
repose ; so that, perhaps, there is ground for the saying 
of Hobbes, that warfare is the natural condition of man- 
kind. Thus, Dr. Owen and Richard Baxter entered into 
an endless controversy whether the death of Christ was 
solidio ej'usdcDi, or only tantundcni. But, though these 
famous Independent champions could afford to quarrel on 
such an ideal battle-field as this, still, they would have 
doubtless been in perfect harmony on questions which 
pressed from without. And so, in Massachusetts, " the 
churches of Christ" were like a rope of sand, when 
undisturbed by external assault ; but, on the approach of 
an enemy or stranger, the rope of sand, as if by some 
magnetic power, became a bar of steel. 

The spirit of intolerance was displayed in Massachu- intolerant 
setts before permanent i)laces of worship were erected, tiie Pmitan 

^ '■ ^ Church. 



192 INTOLERANCE OF 

CHAP. Ere tlie Puritans liad moulded their church into sliape, 

III. * 

' — V — ' wliilu yet no standard of orthodoxy had been set up, and 

no conditions imposed upon those who "prophesied," rehg- 
ious hberty was, in effect, proclaimed to be the right of 
the majority only. Roger Williams was cast out into 
the wilderness, because he taught that it was unlawful 
ev^en " to hear the godly ministers " of the Church of 
England. Harmless enough, truly, was this fanaticism 
in Massachusetts, at the time he spoke, and equally so 
were the letters of admonition which his flock in Salem 
sent abroad, warning " the churclies " that, to hold any 
communion with Her of England, was a " heinous sin." 
But so to believe and so to teach, his conscience in- 
structed him ; and, doubtless, he was sincere in so doing, 
at the same time that he was quite willing to allow a 
perfect toleration to those who differed from him. Cer- 
tain it is, that Williams was no bloody inquisitor, no 
domineering enthusiast. He hated the Catholic Churcli 
in all its forms, and frankly avowed his abhorrence of a 
sacramental religion. But he also declared that the civil 
magistrate had no inherent power to enforce the observ- 
ance of the first table ; and that the duty of a true 
Christian State was not to punish men for heresies, but 
to withdraw from them all manner of countenance. 

The question, whether the civil magistrate may law- 
fully punish for heresy, first arose when Calvin burnt 
Servetus. Beza, the associate of Calvin, maintained the 
affirmative ; and the English exiles, who fled their coun- 
try in dread of the persecuting Mary, learned from the 
master spirits of the Reformation that the axe and fagot 
are lawful arguments in sj)iritual controversies. They 
carried these notions back to England, and from Eno-- 
land they were brought to the New World. And so the 
intolerance of the Puritan Church in Massachusetts was 



THE PURITAN CHURCH. 19^ 

a marked feature in its character, vet not for this cause part 

. • II. 

alone. The Puritan, firmly believing- that he was elect ^^-r-^ 

of God, and that the saints must persevere, exercised 
but little charity towards those whom education and cir- 
cumstances had taught another creed. To sacrifice his 
country for his religion, did not trouble the Puritan so 
much as that a saint should have been compelled to make 
a sacrifice. Even his foith, in so doing, hardly consoled 
him for his loss. Like Abraham, he had left every thing 
at God's command ; but then the former had exchanged 
his home for a land flowing with milk and honey, while 
the latter exiled himself to a wilderness.^ Thus, education 
and inclination united in forming' an intolerant philos- 
ophy. There is " no room in Christ's army for tolera- 
tionists," boldly declared Johnson, one of the earliest and 
sturdiest in the Puritan pilgrimage. Toleration, con- 
tinued Cotton, made the world anti-Christian. The 
church never took hurt from the punishment of here- 
tics.^ 'Tis Satan's policy, echoed Shepard, in 167^, to 
plead for an indefinite and boundless toleration.^ Poly- 
piety is the greatest impiety in the world, said the Simple 
Cobbler of Agawam. " My heart hath naturally detested 
toleration of divers religions, or of one religion in segre- 
gant shapes. He that is willing to tolerate will, for a 
need, hang God's Bible at the devil's girdle." And, in 
like manner, thundered President Oakes, in 1673, " I 
look upon toleration as the first-born of all abomina- 
tions. " Such were the principles avowed by the Puritan 
Pilgrim. He was wrapped in himself, and in the ideal 
perfection his bosom revealed to him. He abhorred the 
Church of Rome, disliked the Church of England, and 

1 Hubbard. ^ Eye Salve, an Election Ser- 

' Bloody Tenet Washed, pp. mon, p. 14. 
132, 192. 

17 



I94< INTOLERANCE OF 

ciTAP. despised the low rabble of schismatics. How could the 



> — r — ' soil he trod o])en its bosom, or its trees shoot forth their 
leaves, or its flowers put on their glory, to gladden the 
heart of the idolater, the Catholic, or the Quaker ? His 
own vagaries had not been suffered in the land of his 
birth ; was he to tolerate the vagaries of others in the 
land of his choice, in the home of his liberty ? 
Pise of the There were three great classes of fanatics in Massa- 
chusetts, during the operation of the first charter ; and 
to some one of these, nearly every case of persecution 
by the Puritan Church may be reduced. They were all 
characterized by offensive qualities, and some of their 
peculiarities almost justify the extravagant language in 
which the Puritan historian was accustomed to clothe his 
relations. Ascribing the cause of all heresies to the 
active jdotting of Satan, the elders felt that the inflicting 
of strij)es, of l)anislnnent, and of death, while they caused 
mortiHcation to the devil, redounded to the glory of God. 
Among the first victims of the Puritan Church were the 
Familists. These singular mauiacs, who styled them- 
selves " The Family of Love." owed their origin to David 
George, of Delft, an enthusiast, who believed himself the 
Messiah. They branched oft" into the various sects of 
Grindletonians, Familists of the Mountains, of the Val- 
leys, of Cape Order, of the Scattered Flock, etc. They 
renounced the principal doctrines of Christianity, Avhich 
they held to be superseded by the advent of David 
George, and are said to have practised among themselves 
the grossest libertinism.^ It is not easy to say under 
which denonn'uation the Familists of Massachusetts 
should be ranked, though, perhaps, the wrongs they 
suffered may well entitle them to the appellation of "The 

1 Scott's Woodstock. 



THE PURITAN CHURCH. 19<5 

Scattered Flock." Somethiiio; of Familism had been part 
brought into Massachusetts by Mrs. Hutchinson ; and, ^ — ■< — ' 
under the ripening influence of persecution, it soon 
increased in bulk and variety. It bewildered the heads of 
grave and learned men ; it crept into the church, divided 
the commonwealth, and threatened with ruin the fairest 
structure of the English dissenters. 

As may be imagined, the banishment of this sect did Peisecu- 
not allay the resentment of the elders. They had been Gorton. 
bearded by a woman, and by a woman been made to 
tremble. The name Familist was rendered odious, wher- 
ever the pulpit was erected. Ho^^■ever inconsistent was 
the treatment of Mrs. Hutchinson with the Puritan cry 
for liberty of conscience, it had this excuse, that the gen- 
eral tranquillity required that severe examples should be 
made. The sufferers were intruders upon the established 
religion. But the same cannot be said of Samuel Gor- 
ton, who suffered a more extraordinary persecution than 
any before or after him. Mrs. Hutchinson crossed the 
path of the elders, and disputed their right to its use ; 
but, in the case of Gorton, the elders went out of their 
way to crush a harmless reptile. 

The principles of this enthusiast " were the very dregs 
of Familism."^ From his original position, as a clothier 
in London, he was suddenly transformed into a " profes- 
sor of the mysteries of Christ," denying all magistracy, 
and all religion but his own.^ Emigrating to Massachu- lese. 
setts while the Antinomian controversy was raging, and 
meeting with a cool reception, he retired first to Plym- 
outh, where, disturbing the Church of " the Pilgrims," 1637. 
he was whipped and banished. From thence he fled to 
Rhode Island, and joined the Antinomian exiles, who, 

^ Bloody Tenet Washed. Hutch- - Sav. Winthrop, vol. ii. p. 57, n. 
inson. 



196 INTOLERAN'CE OF 

under Coddington, had recently org-anized themselves 
into a form of g-overnment. But they had not learned a 
lesson of toleration from their own sufferings, and, soon 
becoming displeased with Gorton, they banished him 
from their society with every mark of contempt. He 
now sought refuge with Roger Williams, and remained 
for a time near Providence, exercising that full and per- 
fect liberty of conscience, which has rendered that little 
spot famous in the annals of New England. But his 
troubles had scarcely begun. Discontent arose among 
some of his followers, concerning the allotment of lands, 
1642. and three " ill-affected persons " applied to the magis- 
trates in Massachusetts for succor.^ Although this ap- 
plication came from men of doubtful reputation, one of 
whom had already been branded as a notorious drunkard, 
and excommunicated from the Puritan Church, it was 
readily entertained. " The place was like to be of use 
to them," both as a field for operations against the In- 
dians, and also as an outlet into Narragansett Bay. 
Moreover, ambition was coupled with bigotry, and the 
design was not only to strip Gorton of his lands, but 
also to punish him for his heresies.^ 

An encouraging answer was accordingly returned to 
the malcontents at Pawtucket. They were taken under 
the protection of Massachusetts ; and the governor issued 

October, his warrant, commanding all the inhabitants of Provi- 
dence not to injure or molest those persons who had 
placed themselves and their property under the protection 
of the Puritan Commonwealth. To this mandate, Gor- 

November. ton returned, more rightfully than wisely, a " contempt- 

1 If we are to believe Gorton, from them an acknowledgment of 

the Massachusetts' government, en- submission. 

raged to see their victims peaceably ~ Sav. Winthrop, vol. ii. p. 84. 

settling on their own soil, intrigued Simplicitie's Defence, etc. p. 22. 
with these malcontents to procure 



I 



THE PURITAN CHURCH. 197 

uous answer," denying that he was in any way amenable part 
to the magistrates of Massachusetts, or that they coukl ^ — v — ' 
exercise any jurisdiction beyond tlie hmits of their own 
patent. Nevertheless, Gorton felt his position to be 
unsafe. Massachusetts now claimed the lands he occu- 
pied, as within her jurisdiction ; he was watched by her 
emissaries, and she easily found a pretext for the com- 
mencement of hostilities. Therefore, " the preservation 
of peace," together with " the compassion he had for the 
wives and little ones" of his company, induced him to 
purchase a tract of land from the Narragansetts, at a 
greater distance from Providence, where he hoped, amid 
the solitude of the woods, and surrounded by savages, to 
fiud that rest which was denied him in the abodes of 
Christianity. Resisting the advice of his friends, to 
establish himself in some Dutch or Swedish settlement, 
out of the reach of the Puritan Commonwealth, with 
the manly avowal that he could not " go under a foreign 
prince, knowing that he had neither been false to his 
king nor his conscience," he shook the dust of civilization 
from his feet, and, accompanied by eleven trusty friends, 
equally fanatical and determined, he plunged into the 
forest, and commenced the life of a patriarch in the east- 
ern borders of what is now the county of Kent in Rhode 
Island.i 

But Gorton had hardly erected the rude cabins of his 1643. 
new home, when he found, with dismay, that his misfor- 
tunes were not over. Two petty sachems, who disputed 
the title of his lands with the Narragansetts, and refused 
to ratify his purchase, although one of their signatures 
was affixed to the deed of conveyance, complained to the 
Massachusetts government that they had been wronged. June. 



1 Simpllcltie's Defence, etc. Hutchinson. 
17* 



198 INTOLERANCE OF 



CHAP. A ready ear was open to their complaint, and they were 
- ^-^ promised immediate rehef, provided they suhjected them- 
selves and their lands. A formal agreement to this effect 
was accordingly executed ; and Massachusetts, embold- 
ened by the countenance of the United Colonies,^ again 
September, notified Gorton that he was living within her jurisdiction, 
and summoned him to appear before the court at Boston, 
and defend himself against the charge that had been 
made against him, of wronging her inhabitants. To this 
extraordinary requirement, Gorton replied, with much 
wisdom, that he owed allegiance to Old England alone, 
and that he might, with as good reason, " send for the 
chiefest" among his summoners to appear before him, and 
receive judgment at his hands. Indignant at this pre- 
sumption, " it was determined to proceed with him by 
force," on the ground that the charter gave Massachu- 
setts " full power to deal with enemies by force of 
arms ; " and forty armed volunteers were despatched 
against a dozen lunatics, to vindicate the zeal of Puri- 
tanism.2 

But although Gorton endeavored to protect himself 
from outrage, he made no objection to an inquiry into 
the charge wliich had been trumped up against him. 
He fortified his house as well as he was able, and then 
met the Puritan soldiers with an offer to submit his 
claims to arbitration. It is not right, he said, in the 
true spirit of English liberty, that my judges should be 



' Hazarfl, vol. ii. p. lo. Winthrop's Journal. In all thisbusi- 
2 " Our charter gives us full power ncss, if we are to believe Gorton, 
to deal with them as enemies, by Massachusetts " wrought by her 
force of arms," was the wretched agents to insinuate themselves into 
excuse given afterward for this out- two or three Indians among us to 
rage. Remonstrance of Massachu- becoine her subjects, hereby \\ith- 
setts, in answer to the Petition of drawing them from their lawful and 
Gorton to the Com. for l'"oreign natural prince, Miantonimo." 
Plantations. Hazard, vol. i. p. 547. 



THE PURITAN CHURCH. 199 

wholly composed of those who are interested in the event 
of the cause ; but let them be taken, in part, at least, 
from some other colony than Massachusetts, and I will 
surrender my cattle as security " to abide their order." 
This proposal, so creditable to the head and heart of this 
extraordinary fanatic, was communicated to the magis- 
trates ; but, by the advice of the elders, it was peremp- 
torily declined, because, even if " the ground of it w^as 
not false," in treating a sovereign state as a party to the 
cause, the blasphemous writings of these men could not 
be compounded by arbitrament, but must be purged 
away, either by public repentance, or else by public pun- 
ishment.^ Thus, the elders boldly threw away the mask, 
and avowed their purpose. In pursuance of this counsel, 
orders w^ere despatched to the leader of the expedition 
" to proceed " against Gorton without further parley ; 
and though he again offered to submit his rights to arbi- 
tration, though he appealed from the prejudication of his 
enemies to the king, and, as a last resort, hung out over 
his feeble intrenchment " the colors of Old England," it 
w^as all in vain. They WTre ordered to surrender, or else 
" to prepare for slaughter." Some of the women of the 
settlement miscarried through fright ; and others escaped 
into the woods, preferring to trust themselves to the 
tender mercies of the savages rather than to their zealous 
countrymen. The western shores of Narragansett Bay, 
for the first time, echoed with the roar of musketry, and 
the wolf and the panther were disturbed in their hiding- 
places by a more unnatural combat than had yet dese- 
crated these peaceful solitudes. A " fierce assault " was 
soon followed by a surrender, and, in a few days, Gor- 
ton, with nine of his followers, was paraded in triumph 

1 Sav. Winthrop. 



200 



INTOLERANCE OF 



CHAP, throuoli the streets of Boston, and imprisoned in the 
connnon jail.' The importance of this service, in the 
eyes of the eklers and magistrates, may be conjectured 
from the facts, that a deputation ^\•ent out of Boston to 
meet the returning' vohniteers, and that the governor 
personally blessed and thanked them, and gave them an 
entertainment at the Inn, Something- more than an anx- 
iety to do justice is discernible in all this display of feeling. 
These illiterate men, unable even to Avrite their own 
thouglits with propriety, were now subjected to the moral 
discipline of the pulpit. They were forced to the meet- 
ing house on the Sabbath, and compelled to receive the 
visits of the elders in their prison. Threats were fol- 
lowed by entreaties, and entreaties again by threats. 
" Recant your opinions," said an elder to one of the 
prisoners ; " it shall be no disparagement to you ; for 
here is our reverend teacher, Mr. Cotton, mIio ordinarily 
preacheth that publicly one year that the next year he 
publicly repents of, and shows himself very sorrowful for 
it to the conij-reefation." ^ But the elders were dealing 
with men as determined as themselves, and these Fam- 
ilists could imitate the obscurity of Cotton, without 
copying his vacillation. They wallowed in the mire of 
fanaticism, and quoted Scrij)ture after Scripture in defence 
of their vagaries. They even acted on the offensive, and 
attacked the Puritan Church. Your baptisms, said they, 
after a sermon by Cotton, are an abomination, and your 
Lord's Supper, the juice of a poor silly grape turned into 
Christ's blood by magicians. " You have cast oft the 
errors in baptism ; but you should do well to cast off" 
baptism itself."^ Your ordinances, your ministers, your 



1 Winthrop. 3 Johnson. He likened their or- 

2 Siinplicitic's Defence. Hutch- dinances to " Moloch, and the star 
inson. of the idol Remphan." Ibid, 



II. 



THE PURITAN CHURCH. 201 

sacraments, are men's inventions, designed for show and part 
pomp. As for your magistracy, it is an idol, and a 
man may as well be a slave to his belly as to his own 
species.^ 

In the exasperation caused by these ravings, the claims 
of the defrauded Indians d\vindled in importance. It 
was resolved to bring the Familists to an immediate trial, 
where the charge produced against them was, not that they 
had wronged the citizens of Massachusetts, but that they 
were blasphemous enemies of the true religion of Jesus 
Christ, and of the civil authority among God's people.^ 
But Gorton appeared to be insane only on the subject of 
religion, and his intuitive sagacity made him, in other 
respects, a formidable antagonist. In the grave presence 
of the elders and magistrates, who sat in judgment with 
the secrecy of an inquisition, the enthusiast conducted 
himself with admirable self-possession. Appealing from 
their juriscfiction to "the noble state of Old England," 
from which he declared his judges alone derived the 
authority they were abusing, he pleaded that, had he 
lived under the government of Massachusetts, he should 
have considered it his duty to support it ; and that, as 
for his religious views, he claimed that liberty of con- 
science, which had been the grand principle in the emi- 
gration of Puritanism. We require you to give up your 
heretical opinions, was the reply ; and, as for an appeal 
to the king, you must not dream or think of such a 

1 Winthrop. Gorton would ac- without any trial. At one of the 

knowledge no other magistracy but interviews between the governor and 

such as was natural ; " as the tather Gorton, the former annoimced to 

over his wife and children, and an the latter that " they had set their 

hereditary prince over his subjects ; " subjects, the Indians, in their own 

denying virtually that the people are land." But, says Gorton, they 

the source of power. Sav. Win- never questioned in public whether 

throp, vol. ii. p. 143. It was right or wrong to take it 

~ The land in dispute appears to from us. 
have been restored to the Indians 



202 INTOLERANCE OF 

CHAP, thing-, for no appeal will be allowed. Answer, therefore, 
"^ — v--^ " as in a case . of life and death," whether the Fathers 
who died before Christ were justified by his blood ? 
Whether the life and sufferings of Christ are the only- 
price of our redemption ] Who is the God whom you 
think we serve ^ And Avhat is your meaning-, when you 
say that we worship the star of our god Reniphan, Chion, 
Moloch ? 1 

Such were the questions of the elders, suggested by a 
painful examination into the "deep mysteries" of Fam- 
ilism. The dispute that followed terminated unfavorably 
for Gorton, who would " acknowledge no error or fault 
in his writings," and completely drowned all meaning 
and sense in extravagant effusions of Scripture and 
prophecy. It was a conflict bet-.veen private reasoners ; 
and why did not the right to interpret Scripture belong 
as well to the Familist as to the Puritan '? The elders 
soon gave up all hope of persuading Gortoff that their 
opinions were the legitimate standard of orthodoxy, and 
nothing remained but to pronounce sentence upon him 
and his deluded followers. The magistrates, upheld by 
their spiritual teachers, decreed that this sentence should 
be death.^ Mercy alone rested with the people, who, 
through their deputies, refused to sanction a decision so 
harsh and unjust. A comj)roniise was effected between 
the church and state, Jind it was finally ordered that these 
November, herctics should be dispersed through the towns of the 
jurisdiction, and, with irons upon their legs, should be 
kept in labor for their support ; but if they attempted to 
propagate their " blasphemous errors," or to escape from 

1 Simplicitic's Defence. Win- what punishment was due by the 

throp. Word of God." Their answer was, 

'■* " The judgment of the elders in writing, that " their offence de- 
had been demanded about their served death by the law of God." 
blasphemous speeches and opinions, Winthrop, vol. li. p. 146. 



THE PURITAN CHURCH. 203 

bondage, they were to suffer death. ^ To defray the part 
expense attending their capture, trial, and imprisonment, ' — ■■ — ' 
men were sent once more to Sha\^'omet, and eighty head 
of cattle, their only possessions, the humble wealth of 
the pasture and field, were seized and sold. Their lands, 
subsequently, became a bone of contention between Mas- 
sachusetts and Plymouth.^ Even the very guns, which 
their humanity prevented them from using against their 
countrymen, were confiscated by the magistrates, two of 
which were bestowed upon the Indians who had been the 
means of gratifying the bigotry of the elders.^ Happily 
for Gorton, the cruelty of this treatment told his story 
far more eloquently than his own fantastic pen. People 
flocked from all parts of the Puritan State to behold the 
victims of an intolerant zeal, and their iron manacles 
won converts to Familism, in the very fiice of the elders 1G44. 
and magistrates. The manifestation of popular sympathy 
was as unexpected as it was unwelcome ; and Gorton 
and his companions were soon released, because " they March. 
did corrupt many of the people, especially the women." 
They were allowed fourteen days to quit the limits of 
civilization, and were prohibited, on pain of death, from 
residing in Massachusetts, Providence, or Shawomet. 
An outcast from society, with the very wilderness shut 
upon him, Gorton fled to England, after enjoying for a 
short time the hospitalities of the Narragansetts.'' 

1 Exceptions were made in favor 2 Hazard, vol. ii. p. 201. 

of one or two, who had lighter sen- 3 Winthrop. When besieged in his 

tences, and were let off on paying house, Gorton says: "• We discharged 

ransoms, as captives of war. Win- notapicce, being loth tospillthe blood 

throp, vol. ii. p. 148. According of our countrymen, though we could 

to Bishop, Wilson was so indignant easil)' have done them much hurt." 

at this lenity, that he preached from See Simplicitic's Defence, p. 59. 

the text, " Because thou hast let go * Winthrop. Hutchinson. Sim- 

the man whom I have appointed to plicitie's Defence. The sentence of 

destruction, thy life shall go for his banishment, on pain of death, " was 

life, and thy people for his people." thought too light and favorable," 

N. E. Judged, p. 123. says Winthrop, probably by the 



204* INTOLERANCE OF 

CHAP. Such was the persecution suffered by this extraordi- 
" — V — ' nary fanatic, a man whom Puritanism persecuted for blas- 
pluMny, and wliom tlie LiberaHsm of the present age may, 
witli equal injustice, soon extol as a pioneer of religious 
freedom. Roger Williams was " divinely mad " in the 
seventeenth century, but, in the nineteenth, he is " the 
apostle of liberty; " and so it may yet be with Gorton, the 
shrewd man but illiterate enthusiast. When, years after 
his outlawry, he had wrung from his persecutors a scanty 
meed of justice, and was seated under his own vine ahd 
fig-tree in the evening of life, no longer at Shawomet, 
iGOa. the place of suffering, but Warwick,^ the abode of peace 
and plenty, he might well say, in the bitterness of his 
heart, in answer to the ignominy that was heaped upon 
him by the Puritans : " I dare compare my conversation 
and life with those of any minister among you, that it has 
been as comely and innocent as his. Whose ox or whose 
ass liave I taken, or when or where have I lived upon 
other men's labors, and not wrought with my own hands, 
for things honest in the sight of men, to eat my own 
bread ? " ^ Let me not omit here the lesson furnished by 
an interesting historical fact. Gorton had liardly com- 
menced dragging about his iron bar in Charlestown, 
when Lord Baltimore, the pa})ist proprietor of Maryland, 
himself a victim of Puritan intolerance at home, offered, 
through liis corres])ondent at Boston, to give all persons 
who would settle upon his territory the privileges of cit- 
izens, and guarantee to them perfect liberty of conscience 
under the very walls of liis Roman churches.^ 

elders. But it was thought unwise ^ i Samuel, ch. xii. v. 3. See 

(perhaps unsafe) to inflict upon tliem Gorton's defence against charges in 

anv thing more. Morton's Memorial, in Hutchinson, 

1 He named Shawomet, War- vol. i. Appendix, 
wick, in honor of the earl of that 3 Winthrop, vol. ii. p. 148. 

name, by whose influence, in 1648, "Our people had no temptation that 

he was restored to his despoiled home, way," says Winthrop. 



THE PURITAN CHURCH. 205 

The elders had manifested their zeal for " Christ's paet 
religion, " and now for some years they were compla- ^ — < — ' 
cently employed in moulding and shaping their discordant llf^ Quak^ 
system. Puritanism was triumphant in Old and New 
England, and the genius of dissent was set high up in 
the modern Babylon, like the golden image of Nebuchad- 
nezzar, for the worship of the. sons of men. And truly 
it received a willing homage. Nothing appeared profane 
or enormous, provided it was opposed to Popery and super- 
stition. The principle seemed to be, to break loose from 
all that association had consecrated, or age rendered ven- 
erable. The homage paid by ignorance to learning, by 
public opinion to legitimate authority, was suddenly with- 
drawn, and, in its place, the ravings of madmen, the 
blasphemies of hypocrites, in a word, all the monstrous 
offspring of private judgment, were adorned by the lives 
of saints, and sealed by the blood of martyrs. 

It was during the sessions of the famous Westminster 
Assembly that the founder of Quakerism,^ hardly arrived 
at his majority, declared to some villagers in the North 
of England that he had received a divine inspiration. 
The written word, he announced to the gaping rabble, 
is not the sole medium of instruction, which God has 
vouchsafed to mankind, nor should they look to the 
church for comfort, whenever they are in doubt or diffi- 
culty; for there is a "light of Christ" within each man's 
breast, superior to bibles and the so-called sacraments. 
Every man is a church in himself, and there dwells the 
Creator of the World in a temple not made with hands.^ 
But what rendered the new prophet peculiarly obnoxious. 



1 Called Quakers, because " they 2 See Moehler's Symbolism. New 
quaked and trembled at the Word York Edit. 1844, pp. 456, 457. 
of the Lord." " Truth and Inno- Robertson's Translation, 
cency Defended," etc. 

18 



S06 INTOLERANCE OF 

CHAP, and ffave him a distinctive character, were the external 

III 
^^-y^^ signs of his mission. He was divinely commanded not 

to take oflf liis hat in the presence of his superiors ; to 
use the words "thee" and " tliou," in addressing all per- 
sons ; not to take an oath, though in a court of justice ; 
and never to bend the knee, even in the presence of his 
sovereign. Such were some of the inspirations of George 
Fox, received while bearing the shepherd's crook on the 
hills and commons of Leicestershire. 

The effects of the singular hallucination of this illiter- 
ate youth, engendered by solitary musings in an age of 
national lunacy, were enhanced by a moral life, and the 
ardor with which he courted persecution. They were 
soon caught up by the capricious multitude, and even 
Penn and Barclay did not afterwards disdain to own Fox 
as their great master. But, in pointing his followers to 
the sacred spark within, as the only "lantern to their 
feet," the enthusiast unwittingly fired a train whose de- 
structive agency he did not foresee. Curious discrepan- 
cies arose in the divine communications. Decency was 
frequently outraged, and the moral sense of the public 
offended; and though Fox approved of "various instances 
of indecency in his own conduct, and of disgusting out- 
rage in that of his followers," he was soon compelled to 
rebuke the inspirations of some of his disciples, whom he 
termed Ranters. But the latter, consulting the oracles 
within them, were far beyond the reach of the inventor 
of their faith, and they made up by enthusiasm what 
they wanted in sanity.^ Denying that the smallest edu- 



' Quakerism, says Bancroft, was Quakerism, asserts Grahame, was 

the aspiration of the human min(1, '•■ disgusting outrage" and "insane 

after a painful emancipation from frenzy," mingled with " profound 

the long reign of bigotry and super- piety" and "doctrinal truth." Such 

stition. It was impatience at the is the difference between the cant of 

tardy advances of intellectual liberty. Liberalism and that of Calvinism. 



THE PURITAN CHURCH. 207 

cation was necessary to make them competent teachers, part 
mechanics and artisans determined to proselyte an ignor- ' — ^^ — 
ant world ; and some departed for the Sublime Porte, 
and others for the Vatican, to kindle the divine spark in 
the breasts of the Sultan and the Pope. With ardent 
zeal, and singular good fortune, they traversed all parts 
of Europe, and left the memory of their fanaticism in 
Sweden, Denmark, Germany, in Asia Minor, and Pales- 
tine.^ For some years, the laws passed by the general 
court against heresies indicated a gradual tendency tow- 
ards some new development of fanaticism. The Foxian 
frenzies were at their height in England, when a handful 
of these wretched fanatics, men and women, arrived in 
the " superstitious " colony of Massachusetts, with a 
"message from the Lord."^ They were not like the 1656, 
mild and unoffending" followers of Penn ; they came to 
fight against "superstition" and "priestcraft;" and were 
armed with nonsensical books and terrible prophecies. 
They attributed the most solemn ordinances of religion 
to the invention of the Pope, and their writings were 
filled with the " grossest collection of blasphemies and 
confusions." The very wantonness of their heresies terri- 
fied the Puritan divines, who were unable to behold in 
them the natural results of private reasoning. They 
would not see the Puritan in the Quaker ; nor were they 
willing to understand that the latter, glowing with reve- 
lations, quaking with the spirit, and boiling over with 
fanaticism, was but the former caricatured. "Their spirit 
of the hat, and their fopperies of thee and thou, were the 
least of those things " that gave offence. In their eyes, 
the Quakers were a " pernicious sect of heretics," and 



1 New England Judged. ism exhibited itself in Salem, before 

2 According to Mather, Quaker- it was known as a sect in England. 



208 INTOLERANCE OF 

CHAP, were treated accordingly. They were " made the sub- 
^^-y-^ jects of reproach, scorn, bnffeting-, scourges, torture, and 
death." They were " stripped of tlie clothes they wore, 
and robbed of the beds whereon they lay. The vessels 
in which they ate were forced from them, and their food 
itself reduced almost to nothing." ^ But, so far from 
being discouraged by this usage, they " courted })ersecu- 
tion," and gloried in suffering. The elders could do 
nothing but advise the magistrates. The Quaker mis- 
sionaries were far beyond the reach of Puritanism. They 
were not only heretics, but accursed. 
Jnij-. No sooner had these fanatics arrived in Massachusetts, 

than the court of assistants and the general court com- 
menced their several tasks. The former led the way, by 
first imprisoning and then banishing the " messengers 
from the Lord,"^ and ordering their books to be burned 
by the common hangman, in the market-place of Bos- 
ton.^ Even the master of the ship who brought them 
into the port was imprisoned, until he gave bonds 
to carry them away, free of charge.^ But, in this 
attempt to crush at once the dangerous novelties, the 
court proceeded under the general laws against heresy ; 
for hitherto Quakerism had been a crime unknown to the 
statute-book of the state. It was determined to obviate 
the necessity of future severities, by preventing Quakers 
from coming into the jurisdiction ; and the general court 
October, passed a law, prohibiting masters of vessels to land any 
of the " cursed sect " upon the shores of Massachusetts, 
or to import any books containing their " devilish opin- 
ions." ^ But, notwithstanding this interdict, the evil ap- 

1 Kmerson's History of the First 5 Colony Laws. The first (Quaker 

Church in Boston. victims were supposed to be pos- 

~ Hutchinson. Mather. Neal. sesscd by devils, and their bodies 

3 New England Judged. were examined for marks of witch- 

4 Ibid. craft. 



THE PURITAN CHURCH. 209 

peared to increase by a "back door," and as the Quakers part 
could not proclaim the divine commands in the streets — v — ' 
and market-place, they sheltered themselves and their 
frenzies in the houses of their proselytes. At the same 
time, the colonies, in confederacy with Massachusetts, 
adopted similar regulations, and it was urged upon Rhode 
Island to do the like. But the authorities of that colony 
" wisely replied," that they could not persecute any man 
for difference of opinion, and that the Quakers already 
loathed Rhode Island, as a place where they could preach 
without contradiction, and revile without punishment.^ 
Quakerism soon began to gain a firm hold upon the 
imaginations of excitable women and weak-minded men, 
and the elders were frequently amazed at the denuncia- 
tions of goodmen and goodwives, to v^^hom, perhaps, but 
a short time before they had administered the ordinances 
of their communion. As soon as it was perceived that 
the disciples of Fox were, by some invisible method, 
increasing in numbers, the general court ordered that all 1657. 
persons who gave secret encouragement or hospitality to 
the " blasphemous heretics," should be heavily fined and 
imprisoned ; but, for the crime of being- a Quaker, it was 
provided that, after a first conviction, the culprit, if male, 
should lose one of his ears, or, if female, be severely 
whipped ; that, after a second conviction, these punish- 
ments should be repeated ; and that, after a third con- 
viction, whether males or females, their tongues should 
be bored through with a red-hot iron.^ 

Quakerism now began to increase in strength and 



1 Hutchinson, vol. i. Appendix, On the contrary, " he writ very 
p. 453. Hazard, vol. ii. p. 552. handsomely against their practices;" 
Although the tolerant principles of and began, in consequence, to re- 
Williams forbade him to refuse the cover the good opinion of the elders 
Quakers an asylum, he was not by of Massachusetts, 
any means favorable to their tenets. 2 Hutchinson. Colony Laws. 
18* 



210 INTOLERANCE OF 

influence. The frenzies of madmen seemed in the pillory 
like the teachings of prophets ; they were soon to assume 
an almost holy aspect on the floor of the scaffold. Their 
followers continued to increase. " It was no rare thing 
for their leaders to make proselytes among the people, 
merely hy stroking or breathing upon them." ^ The 
prisons rapidly filled up with captives, who would neither 
work for their support nor pay the fees of their jailers ; 
to correct which evil the magistrates issued an order, 
that " the Quakers in prison be whipped twice a week 
if they refused to work, and the first time to add five 
stripes to the former ten, and each time to add three to 
them."^ They bore whipping with unexampled fortitude, 
but would not raise a finger in submission to the laws.^ 
Private meetings continued to be held by them in houses, 
in barns, in woods, and wherever they could assemble 
without fear of interruption and pour out their anathemas 
upon their persecutors. They established their head- 
quarters at Rhode Island ; and no sooner was one party 
of Quakers dispersed than another detachment departed 
for the Puritan State, burning with zeal and eager for 
martyrdom. Their methods of prophesying had in them 
something disgusting and ludicrous. Women would go 
naked through the streets, shouting woes upon the elders 
and magistrates. On one occasion, a Quaker smashed 
two great glass bottles in the face of an assembled con- 
gregation, saying, " thus will the Lord break you in 
pieces." A woman " smeared her face all over as black 
as a coal, and went into a meeting-house, using it as a 

1 Mather. resolution. " They resolved to die 

2 New England Judged. rather than to submit, and one of 

3 In consequence of their refusing them was nearly whipped to death 
to work in prison, for their support, upon this order." Neal. The one 
the court of assistants ordered that here alluded to was William Brcnd, 
they should be whipped twice a mentioned by Bishop, the Quaker 
week. But this altered not their martyrologist. 



THE PURITAN CHURCH. 211 

sign of the black pox," which was to come among the 
colonists.^ 

In consequence of these and other alarming manifesta- 
tions, the magistrates increased their severity. It was 
made penal to listen to Quaker preaching, and a rigid 1658. 
system of espionage was established to ferret out secret 
meetings, which made it even unsafe for any person to 
absent himself from the usual public worship. The 
slightest deviation from the ordinary routine of life was 
considered a good ground for suspicion. A freeman 
was liable to arrest for wearing his hat when he should 
have been uncovered. No man could let his yea be yea, 
or his nay nay, without being marked and distrusted. 
The doors of private dwellings, in England sacred 
evpn to the king, were ruthlessly forced open on bare 
suspicion. But the "vagabond Quakers," those to whom 
the Puritan State was indebted for this unexampled trial 
of its faith, who would neither work in prison, nor remain 
out of the jurisdiction when banished, called forth the 
extreme rigor of the law. The elders displayed more 
than usual activity, insulted as they had been by the 
Quakers, who treated their persons and religion with 
galling contempt. Suppose, said Chauncey, at the Thurs- 
day lecture, ye should catch wolves in a trap ; and ye 
cannot prove that they killed either sheep or lambs ; 
will ye let them go alive ? ^ A bill was introduced into October. 
the court of assistants, reciting the many dangerous and 
horrid tenets of the Quakers, which were destructive of 
the respect due to the magistrates, and of the established 

1 Neal. New England Judged, and elders by their Christian names. 

Hutchinson. They wore long hair. If confined in prison, their stirring 

They never bent their heads, nor appeals to their disciples gained new 

removed their hats. They thoued converts from the populace, 
and theed with stubborn obstinacy, 2 New England Judged, 
and addressed even the magistrates 



212 INTOLERANCE OF 

CHAP, forms of worship, and which were " insinuating- them- 

III. 7 . ... 

' — y^ selves into the minds of the simpler." This bill provided 
that every person, not an inhabitant of the colony, con- 
victed of being a member of this " cursed sect," should 
be banished on pain of death ; and, aware of the popular 
sympathy in behalf of the Quakers, the magistrates 
unanimously passed it without the clause of a trial by 
jury, providing simply that the accused party should be 
tried by a court consisting of three magistrates. To this 
arbitrary measure, however, the deputies, ever jealous of 
oligarchical usurpations, would, at first, by no means con- 
sent.^ But the magistrates having prevailed upon two 
of the deputies to change sides, a majority of one was 
finally obtained in favor of the law, the speaker, with a 
large minority, entering their protest against it, as con- 
trary to the spirit of English liberty. But even the 
two deputies who changed sides refused to do so with- 
out an amendment, that the trials should be by a special 
jury.^ 

Still, in invisible streams, the "rogues and vagabonds" 
poured into the Puritan State, infesting alike town and 
country, and refusing to the elders and magistrates, 
whom they denounced as " the seed of the serpent," the 
slightest respect, either in word or manner. " Hardly a 
man banished the colony, by virtue of this severe law, 
but returned again in a few months, animated with new 
zeal for propagating his opinions."^ And the Quaker, 
too, could quote Scripture as well as the Puritan. 

^ Neal. Mather. Colony Laws, were also to be banished on pain of 

The bill made a distinction in favor death. 

of the Quakers who were inhabit- 2 Hutchinson, vol. i. p. 182, n. 

ants of the colony, the only cllect of New England Judged, 

which, however, was to give them 3 Ncal. They thoued and thecd 

one month's imprisonment, in the with renewed emphasis, and addressed 

hope that, during that time, they the judges who tried them by their 

would recant. If they did not, they Christian names. 



THE PURITAN CHURCH. 



213 



" Where do you live ] " asked the court of a female part 
Ranter. " I live in God," was the reply ; " for in him ^-^-v-^ 
we live, and move, and have our being." It was, surely, 
a sore trial for the magistracy to be thus bearded by 
rogues who feared not their laws, who reverenced not 
their persons, and who made light of all they considered 
so sacred. Such was, at length, the obstinacy of the 
Quakers in refusing obedience to the authorities, that an 
order passed to sell some of them into slavery, in any of 1659. 
the English plantations in Virginia or Barbadoes.^ But 
even the dread of this horrible fate made no manner of 
impression upon them. 

And now some terrible examples were to be made. 
The pillory was thrust aside, and in its place was reared 
the unsightly gibbet. Three vagabond Quakers, two 
males and a female, had been banished on pain of death, 
and were again arrested in the colony, while pursuing 
their mission as prophets. The woman was a second 
time banished, on the petition of her son ; but the men, 
who should have been treated as lunatics, were strangled, October. 
with circumstances of unusual barbarity, by the public 
executioner.^ Their requiem was the murmurs and 
groans of the populace, poured forth in dismal harmony 
with the creaking of their chains. Their bodies were 
cast into holes, stripped of their humble coverings ; and it 
was forbidden to fence the unhallowed spot, to protect 
them from the attacks of "ravenous beasts." Loud clam- 
ors were uttered against the harshness of the magistrates, 



1 Neal. The Pilgrim Puritans cut down, they were suffered to fall 
had more compassion for Quakers to the ground, with which, the skull 
than for Indians. When it was of W. Robinson was broke ... when 
found that they heard this sentence down, their shirts were ripped ofl" 
unmoved, the order was never car- with a knife, and their naked bodies 
ried into eifect. Hazard, vol. ii. cast into a hole of the earth." New 
p. 563. England Judged, p. 1 2 J. 

2 " When their dead bodies were 



I 



214 INTOLERANCE OF 

CHAP, and so great was the popular iiulignation, that the gen- 
" — y — ' eral court thouglit it advisable to publish a proclamation, 
justifying the measures that had been taken. Therein 
they declared that the justice of these proceedings, sup- 
ported as they are by the laws of God, ought rather 
to make them expect encouragement and commendation 
from all pious men, than to convince them' of any neces- 
sity of apologizing for what they have done. " Yet, for- 
asmuch as men of weaker parts and perverser principles 
may be less satisfied, and may take occasion to calumniate 
us as -bloody persecutors, we thought it requisite to 
declare that, upon serious consideration, according to the 
example of England in their provision against the Je- 
suits, since no penalties were sufficient to restrain the 
impudent and insolent obtrusions of the Quakers, a law 
was made banishing such persons on pain of death." ^ 
Two Quakers, proceeds the proclamation, have been 
executed under the law ; but a third, a woman, has been 
released by the clemency of the court, and has had liberty 
to depart. The sparing of this woman will manifestly 
evince, that we desire their lives absent rather than their 
deaths present.^ 

But the elders and magistrates found that the work 
increased on their hands. William Leddra, whom they 
offered life and liberty, on condition of his leaving the 



1 This is one of the few instances, '-Hubbard. Mather. Hazard, 

if not a solitary one, where the laws This declaration is not entirely sup- 

of England were expressly referred ported by facts. Col. Temple and 

to, as furnishing analogy for their the younger Winthrop both endcav- 

own. The absurdity of the coin- orcd to prevent the execution of the 

parison is obvious. Neal, with some two men, and offered to take charge 

asperity, denies the force of the ap- of them, but without avail. New 

plication ; saying that, by a parity England Judged. Hutchinson, vol. 

of reason, it might have been made i. p. 184, n. It was afterwards an- 

use of against the Preshyicrlans swered by Bishop, in a formidable 

themselves. In which he is undoubt- narrative of five hundred pages, 
edly right. 



THE PURITAN CHURCH. 5^15 

country, replied: "What! join with such murderers as 
you ? Then let every man that meets me say, Lo, this 
is the man that hath forsaken the God of his salvation." 
" What have you gained by your cruel persecution ? " 
said the condemned Christison ; " for the last man put 
to death, here are five come in his room ; and if you 
have power to take my life from me, God can raise up 
the same principle of life in ten of his servants, and send 
them among you in my room, that you may have tor- 
ment upon torment." But when the form of Mary 
Dyer, " a comely, grave woman, and of a goodly person- 16GO. 
age," ^ who a third time braved death, in obedience to an 
inward impulse, so that " she could not choose but come 
and do as formerly," was seen suspended from the gal- Juno. 
lows, and swaying to and fro in the wind, the compassion 
of the people could no longer be restrained. The women 
lifted up their voices and wept ; while the men assembled 
about the prison with fierce gestures and bitter impreca- 
tions, and threatened its destruction. These signs of dissat- 
isfaction, which were continually increasing, it was thought 
unsafe to disregard. One more execution only took place, 16CI. 
when the general court declared that they were desirous May. 
of using all means, with as much lenity as was consistent 
with the common safety, to prevent the intrusions of the 
Quakers ; and ordered that vagabond Quakers should be 
delivered to the constable of the town in which they were 
arrested, and, under his directions, stripped naked from 
the middle upwards, tied to a " cart's tail," and whipped 
through the to\Mi, and so through every town, to the near- 
est border of the settlement, where they were to be dis- 
charged. If they returned thrice, they were to be branded 
on the left shoulder with the letter R ; and a fourth repe- 

1 New England Judged. 



216 INTOLERANCE OF 

tition of tlie offence was to render them liable to banish- 
ment on })ain of death, as formerly. As for those Quakers 
who should arise among the inhabitants of the colony, they 
were ordered to be imprisoned for one month ; and then, 
unless they retracted their opinions, or voluntarily left the 
colony, they were to be proceeded against in the same 
manner. And, for the better execution of these orders, 
the constables were empowered, as necessity might re- 
quire, to impress carts, oxen, and assistants.^ 

This shocking gauntlet was run by only a few of the 
Quakers. Upwards of forty persons had appeared at 
the bar of the court of assistants and the general court, 
within the space of four years, and, being convicted of 
the crime of Quakerism, had been dismissed by their 
stern judges, some to the wilderness, some to the whip- 
ping post, some to the pillory, and some to the gallows. 
The number that suffered corporal punishment, by order 
of the county courts, is unkno\Mi.^ The example thus 
set in Massachusetts was followed in Plymouth and New 
Haven ; though " in Comiecticut there was little done, 
the governor being a tender man." Even in the little 
settlement of Martha's Vineyard the Quakers met with 
1657. persecution, and, being thrust from the meeting-house by 
Au^rust. ^jjg constable, were delivered to an Indian, " to be carried 
in a small canoe to the main land, over a sea nine miles 
broad." But, to the honor of Mayhew's teachings be it 
spoken, the savage, with noble humanity, took them to 
his rude home, where they stayed three days, " waiting 
for a calm season ; " and he refused any consideration, 



1 Colony Laws. Neal. Mather, name — an anomaly, at this time, in 

Hutchinson. Puritan jurisprudence. Bishop, in 

- As if to shift, in some measure. New England Judged, mentions sev- 

the responsibility of these persecu- cral cases, which Hutchinson says he 

tions, the warrants, in some cases at cannot find elsewhere, 
least, were issued in his Majesty's 



THE PURITAN CHURCH. 217 

saying- that " tliey were strangers, and Jehovah taught part 
him to love strangers." ^ The persecutions extended as "^ — v — ' 
far as the Dutch settlements. A wail now went up 
from the land that reached to Whitehall itself; and an 
order issued thence, requiring the immediate cessation of September. 
all capital and other corporal punishments of those of 
the king-'s subjects called Quakers, and directing that 
such as were obnoxious should be sent to England. It 
came almost at the eleventh hour. It could not erase 
the stains which indelibly rest upon the Puritan Church 
of Massachusetts. It could not prevent future historians 
from sitting in judgment on the intolerance and bigotry 
of those whom it would be the great object of their 
ambition to portray in brilliant and pleasing colors.^ It 
could not turn away the finger of derision, which the 
world was to point at the heroes of modern colonization.^ 
But it could and did check the further increase of crime. 
The prisons were emptied of their captives, and the ex- 
ecution of the laws against Quakers, so far as regarded 
corporal punishments, was suspended during the pleasure 
of the court. 

And now Quakerism, as an antagonistic scheme, died 
away. Its only fuel had been opposition and persecu- 
tion, and, these removed, it sunk into its appropriate 
place, harmless and insignificant. It is true that the old 
laws were illegally revived, so far as respected vagabond 
Quakers, " whose punishment was limited to whipping, 
and, as a further favor, through three towns only; "^ but i662. 
little occasion offered for their exercise. Yet the few 



1 New England Judged, p. 162. Quaker persecution is " much to be 

2 Without mentioning the host of lamented." 

writers that have lauded the Pilgrim 3 The Quakers suffered most in 

Puritans, it will be sufficient to allude Plymouth and Massachusetts, 

to Bancroft, and even to Grahame, * Hutchinson. Hazard. Colony 

who is forced to exclaim that the Laws. 
19 



^18 INTOLERANCE OF 

CHAP, cases of punishment that occurred, and these probably in 
v^-v^ consequence of a royal letter which was received from 
Charles, in which he declared that his parliament had 
been obliged to make a sharp law against the Quakers, 
and his willingness that Massachusetts, still breathing 
the spirit of a deep-rooted hostility, might do the same,^ 
fanned the dying antagonism of the Quakers into a 
feeble flame. In 1669, they presented a " broadside " to 
the king and parliament, wherein they complained of 
much barbarous usage on the part of the authorities in 
Massachusetts ; but no attention being paid to the com- 
plaint, they adopted the wise course of ceasing to molest 
the rigid Puritans, who regarded their persons with 
horror, and denied that their inspirations were any other 
than those of Satan .^ The animosity against these fa- 
natics was again manifested so late as 167-5; \vhen a law 
was passed, ordering every person found at a Quaker's 
meeting to be committed to the house of correction, or 
to be fined.^ This was excused, on the ground that the 
toleration of the Quakers was one of the principal sins, 
which had brought on the Indian war as a chastisement.'* 
The mission of the Quakers was, however, fulfilled ; nor 
was it, as ihese ignorant enthusiasts supposed, one of 
prophecy, but of warning.^ They may be considered, 
without drawing too far upon the imagination, as instru- 
ments in the hand of Providence, to teach all who will 

1 Grahamc. This writer says, kind. New England Judged. Neal. 

with his usual carelessness, that " the This may be considered as a great 

royal invitation to persecute the triumph of Quakerism. 

Quakers was dircgarded." '^ Truth and I nnocency Defended, 

- During the reign of Queen etc. 

Anne, the Quakers prevailed upon "* Chalmers's Annals, p. 399. 

the Dissenting ministers in Plngland ^ If the Puritan Church is justi- 

to address their brethren in Massa- ficd in their persecution by the plea 

chusctts in behalf of " Our Friends, that their principles were subversive 

the Quakers," wherein they forcibly of social order, tliat church stultified 

urged that liberty of conscience is itself in flying from England. 
one of the undoubted rights of man- 



THE PURITAN CHURCH. ^19 

heed the warning, that any system of rehgion, which is part 
founded in schism and nourished by spiritual pride, can- ^-^^ — ' 
not win for itself the permanent respect of man, or the 
favor of God.^ 

Anabaptism was very nearly allied to Quakerism, and, The Ana- 
to some extent, prepared the way for it in Massachusetts 
Bay. The descent from the one to the other was short 
and easy. Those new sectaries, says Hubbard, who go 
about to unchurch all others, do at last unchurch them- 
selves ; and from Anabaptists become Separatists, then 
Seekers, and, at last. Ranters. The steps in this fanatical 
ladder were short, but not well defined ; and, in Rhode 
Island, the medley inhabitants were continually ascending 
and descending upon them, imagining themselves the 
saints of the Most High. 

It is difficult to say whether the vulgarity or profanity 
of the Anabaptists was most odious to the elders of 
Massachusetts. These " religious Jacobins " owed their 
origin to the furious Muncer, who, after his conversion 
to Lutheranism, preached equality and conmiunity of 1525. 
property, as well as the dogma of immersion. His prin- 
ciples made rapid progress among the peasantry of upper 
Germany, who broke out into open insurrection, and were 
only crushed by the Landgrave of Hesse, after the most 1526. 
sanguinary resistance. The blow received by this sect in 
the loss of Muncer, and in its utter prostration in Cen- 
tral Germany, scattered its remaining leaders towards 
the West, who retired into the Netherlands and West- 
phalia. Two of these fanatics, John Mathias, a baker, 
and John Boccold, a tailor, the latter of whom had not 

1 The elders most active in pro- use of the peculiar superstition of 

moting the Quaker persecution were the Puritans as a weapon against 

John Norton and John Wilson, them, attributed it to " the power of 

The death of the former was very the Lord." 
sudden, and the Quakers, making 



120 INTOLERANCE OF 

CHAP, yet obtained the first rank in his proper calling-, fixed 
^ — r^ their residence in Munster, and there commenced the 
dissemination of their principles. Around that })eculiar 
doctrine which gave the name to the sect, and \\hich 
formed the nucleus of their tenets, they gathered others 
of a more alarming nature. They taught that Chris- 
tians, who are guided by the Spirit of God, have no 
need of a civil magistrate ; that all inequalities of wealth 
or rank are contrary to the spirit of the gospel ; that the 
followers of Christ should own all things in common ; 
and that the New Testament imposed no restraint in 
regard to the number of wives, which, like those of the 
patriarchs of the promised land, might be multiplied 
indefinitely. Maintaining these principles, which appeal 
to the lowest appetites of mankind, they gradually gained 
ground with the populace, and had no sooner acquired 
sufficient power, than they attempted to carry them into 
practical effect. They seized upon Munster, pillaged its 
churches, endeavored to destroy all books but the Bible, 
and confiscated the estates of its wealthy citizens. Ac- 
quiring the mastery of this ancient fief of the Church, 
they gave it the name of Mount Sion, and abandoned 
themselves to the most unbridled licentiousness.^ 

The reformation of Munster seemed almost a carica- 
ture of that of Wittemberg. From the first, none had 
been more enraged than Luther to see the ffreat work in 
which he was engaged disfigured by his own followers, 
but a few years after he had been separated from the 
Christian world by a bull of excommunication, and had 

1 Prophctae ct coiicionatorum auc- sa non fucrit. Lamb. Hortens. p. 

toritate juxtfi et cxcinplo, totfi urbc 303. Nemo una contcntus fuit 

ad rapicndas pulchcrrimas quasquc neque cuiquam extra cftcetas et viris 

ffrmiiias discursum est. Ncc intra immatiiras contincnti esse licuit. lb. 

paucos dies, in tantfi hominum turbil p. 307. See Robertson's Charles V. 

terc ulla reperta est supra annum p. 539. See Moehler's Symbolism, 

decimum quartum quas stuprum pas- p. 430. 



THE PURITAN CHURCH. 221 

declared the pope to be the Antichrist. Cathohcs and 
Protestants united in condemning the second struggle of 
Anabaptism, and, after a short triumph of scarce a year 
and a half, it was again subdued, and its last prophet, 1535. 
John Boccold, was put to death in lingering torments. 
But though the reign of these fanatics was short, it 
lasted sufficiently long to inspire universal disgust ; and 
they made so good use of their time, that they rendered 
the very name by which they were called, harmless 
enough in itself, a word of indefinable abhorrence for all 
coming ages. Until religious liberty became familiar to 
the nations of the earth, they were afterwards to be 
endured only on sufferance, and, in no case, unless they 
lived moral lives, and became obedient citizens.^ Though 
the leaders of this sect were forced to abandon the offen- 
sive tenets of its founders, they continued, for the most 
part, to be of low origin and of illiterate pursuits. 
Indeed, they prided themselves on the obscurity of their 
birth, and so gave rise to the general impression among 
their followers, that meanness of condition, whether bod- 
ily or mental, is rather a desirable qualification than 
otherwise for the ambassadors of God.^ A ready exam- 
ple was found in the case of the Apostles, to whom, on 
occasion, they did not scruple to compare themselves ; 
forgetting that these holy men were unfitted for their 
great duties until they had been filled with the Holy 
Ghost, and given tongues of fire. 

1 Some Anabaptists, who wan- 2 Cromwell held this opinion, in 

dered from Holland into England, common with the Anabaptists, if 

in the reign of Elizabeth, were seized, we may judge from his acts. Dur- 

and two of them were condemned ing his usurpation, he employed a 

to the flames, and the rest banished, felon convict to root out the errors 

That "good old martyrologist," of Popery and Prelacy in Maryland. 

John Fox, earnestly implored that Wilberforce's History of American 

the slumbering fires of Smithfield Church, 
might not be rekindled with new 
victims, but without avail. 

19* 



•222 INTOLERANCE OF 

CHAP. Anabaptists " had been among the planters of Massa- 
— .-^ chusetts from the beginning," ^ but they had generally- 
excited little notice, and, so long as they continued to 
conceal their peculiarities, they remained unmolested. 
With the exception of Roger Williams, who had been 
thought to favor the Anabaptists, and who is now claimed 
by this popular sect in the United States as at the same 
time the teacher of immersion and the champion of relig- 
ious liberty, we learn little of that comnmnion until the 
year 1640, when it appears "many were inclined that 
way," and apprehensions were expressed that " the num- 

1644. ber would increase."^ A few years after, the tenets of 
Muncer began openly to exhibit themselves, and one man 
was whipped for refusing to let his child be baptized, 
bearing his punishment with much fortitude, and " boast- 
ing," afterwards, that " God marvellously assisted him." ^ 
In the same year, a law was passed, with the approval of 
the elders, banishing such " incendiaries " from the col- 
ony ; and also providing, that whoever should " openly 
condemn or oppose the baptizing of infants," or should 
" purposely depart the congregation at the administration 
of that ordinance," or should " deny the ordinance of the 
magistracy, and their lawful authority to make war, and 
to punish the breaches of the first table," all such persons 
should, on conviction, suffer the same sentence.^ In the 

1645. year following, " many books in defence of Anabaptism " 
were brought into the colony, and an effort was made, 
without success, to procure liberty of conscience, and to 
make Massachusetts " a shelter for a general tolera- 
tion." 5 



1 Mather. 3 Hubbard. Winthrop. 

2 Letters of Mr. Hooker, cited 4 Colony Laws. Winthrop. 
in Hutchinson, vol. i. p. 208, n. 5 Hubbard. Winthrop. 
Sav. Winthrop. 



THE PURITAN CHURCH. 223 

These stringent regulations for some time quelled the part 
spirit of Anabaptism, which next showed itself in the ^^-r-^ 
Colony 6f Plymouth, in the persons of Obadiah Holmes I65i. 
and two or three of his companions. They were at once 
excommunicated by the Pilgrims, and were ordered 
neither to ordain ministers, nor to baptize, nor to break 
bread, nor to meet together on Sundays. They soon 
after wandered into Massachusetts, and were arrested on 
the Lord's Day, while worshipping God after their own 
manner. They were immediately forced into the assem- 
bly of the regular congregation by the constable ; but, 
instead of listening with reverence to the services, they 
put on their hats, and employed their time, during prayer, 
in reading books. For these insults to the established 
religion, they were sent prisoners to Boston, where they 
were tried, and sentenced to pay heavy fines, or to be 
whipped. Holmes chose to undergo the latter punish- 
ment, in order that he might the better evince his loyalty 
to the principle of religious liberty ; and when, being 
livid with the bruises of the lash, two or three of his 
friends took him by the hand in the market-place, and 
praised God for the fortitude he exhibited during his 
punishment, they were fined for reverencing that motive 
in the sufferer which alone rendered him respectable.^ 
The fate of Holmes and his comrades again put an end, 
for a time, to any further display of Anabaptism ; and 
the Quaker persecution, which soon after supervened, 
opened an ample field to such as were desirous of acquir- 
ing the glory of martyrdom. Only one more sacrifice 
was made, to gratify the intolerance of the elders, in the 
person of Henry Dunster, the first President of Harvard 

1 Clarke's Narrative. Neal. 



224* INTOLERANCE OF 

CHAP. College, who was forced to resign his office for denying 

^ the validity of infant baptism.^ 

It was during the period from 1656 to 1662, and 
while the Ranters were undergoing those inflictions which 
have rendered them immortal in Massachusetts, that the 
commonwealth was shaken to its centre by difficulties 
on the subject of baptism.^ The state was beginning to 
outgrow the church ; and many freemen were dissatisfied, 
because their children were excluded from the privileges 
of Christianity. To answer the exigencies of the times, 
the elders, as we have seen, began to devise methods 
whereby the strictness of their usages might be relaxed. 
But while they were groping in the mazes and mists of 
an artificial and incomplete system of religion, seeking 
for some rule to govern, or some analogy to guide, the 
antagonism of the dormant Anabaptists began to be 
aroused.^ The grass was green upon the grave of Dun- 
ster, to whose resting-place the fearful enthusiasts could 
repair, and, over his ashes, animate each other to declare 
the purpose that burned within them. 

Having finally acquired sufficient resolution, " an hon- 
est shoemaker," with a half dozen of his fellows, publicly 
1665. announced that their consciences would not suffer them 
to commune longer A\'it]i " unbaptized men." They ac- 
cordingly drew ofi" from the congregation of Boston, and 
met by themselves for public worship.^ The astonish- 

1 Dunstcr appears to have been a ster's successor, Chauncey, was " of 
man of considerable ability. The the contrary extreme in baptism ; it 
" pious Mitchcl " was so much being his judgment not only to ad- 
influenced by his reasoning, that he mit infants to baptism, but to wash 
declared his confidence in Pcdohap- or dip them all over." Hubbard, 
tism was much shaken, and refrained - See ante, p. 184. 
from hearing his sermons, fearing 3 Hubbard. 

they were prompted by " the Evil '' Grahame has confounded this 

One." Mather. Sec Qi^incy's His- movement with the wanderings of 

tory of Harvard University. Dun- Holmes, who came into Massachu- 



THE PURITAN CHURCH. J225 

meiit of the elders at this audacity may be easily imag- part 
ined. The schismatics were not persons of education, ^^ — ' — ' 
wealth, or note. They were of " the inferior sort," and 
chose for their spiritual teachers not only the lowest of 
the people, but even persons excommunicate from the 
established communion for moral derelictions. A chasm 
immeasurable at once yawned between the Puritan Church 
and the sectaries. A few ignorant mechanics had pre- 
sumed to question the divine mission of Puritanism, and 
to doubt the final salvation of all who had not been im- 
mersed in the waters of baptism.^ 

But the elders were firm and united against this unex- 
pected rebellion, and, with mingled feelings of pity and 
contempt, delivered the sectaries over to the civil magis- 
trates. Quakerism, mutilated and disfigured, had just 
fled to the capacious bosom of Roger Williams, who was 
now to entertain another guest. In the plenitude of its 
power, the general court forbade the separation to con- 
tinue, and ordered the Anabaptists to rejoin the established 
communion. To this command, they pleaded liberty of 
conscience, the same stirring cry which had been echoed 
in Great Britain, from the Orkneys to Land's End, 
against the conforming measures of the Stuarts, and 
which had given a faint glory to the Puritan emigration. 
But three thousand miles altered the aspect of freedom, 
and the elders proclaimed from their pulpits that liberty 
of conscience was little better than "impious ignorance."^ 

setts, from Plymouth, fourteen years in building of colleges." "Surely," 

before. says Hubbard, speaking of a " Wed- 

1 The mixture of astonishment derdoped shoemaker," who endeav- 

and disgust, displayed by the elders ored to defend "the innocency" of 

on this occasion, was rather ludi- the Anabaptists, " he was not well 

crous. " Persons of liberal occa- aware of the old adage, ne sutor 

sion began to reflect," says Mather, ultra crepidam, or else he would not 

" that if Goodman Such-an-One or have made such botching work." 
Gaffer Such-an-One, were fit to be 2 Mather. Neal. 
ministers, we had befooled ourselves 



«2i26 INTOLERANCE OF 

CHAP. But the sectaries, encouraged by the declaration of the 
^^ — . — ' royal coniniissioners, that " liberty should be given to all 
sorts and sects of men," ^ and who were, at this time, pur- 
suing their unwelcome inquiries in the colonies, persisted 
in their schism with the usual obstinacy of ignorance and 
fanaticism. Unfortunately for their tranquillity, the 
commissioners, shunned by the magistrates, had no 
means of enforcing the royal authority ; and, of the 
Anabaptists, some were flogged, some fined, and others 
imprisoned, while all that were freemen were disfran- 
chised, and finally banished. Again did this persecution, 
as in the case of the Quakers, have the opposite effect to 
that desired. The faction was strengthened, and many 

1CC8. of the principal inhabitants of Boston petitioned the gen- 
eral court in favor of those who had been thus driven 
from their homes. The elders, however, were not to be 
moved by public opinion, and the leaders in this unwar- 
rantable act were fined. 

The noise made by this fresh persecution soon reached 
England. The principles of religious liberty were there 
better understood ; ^ and the Owens and the Goodwins 
addressed a letter to the Governor of Massachusetts, 
deprecating any further outrages upon the rights of 
humanity. But this excellent letter made no impression. 
The prisoners were not released, nor was the execution 
of the laws suspended.^ Fear, alone, of the royal indig- 
nation, and the long perseverance of the sectaries them- 
selves, wrung from the elders, at last, not an open and 

1 Letter of Increase Mather, were, in part, justified by the New 

Hutchinson, vol. i. p. 208, n. England persecutions, and this soon 

- The Dissenters in England roused them, to prevent, if possible, 

were taught this lesson at much the use of such a weapon against 

personal inconvenience, nor did they them. See Hutchinson, vol. i. p. 

derive it from any thing peculiar in 209, n. 

their own faith. The proceedings ^ Neal. Mather, 
against tliem, on the Restoration, 




THE PURITAN CHURCH. S^ 

cordial toleration, but a silent and. suspicious endurance. 
Their first meeting--liouse was erected by stealth,^ and 
" many honest people were ruined by fines and imprison- 
ments," before they gained their point ;^ and when, finally, 
the Anabaptists were left to the quiet enjoyment of their 
" exorbitances," they became, like the Quakers, utterly 
insignificant,^ 

I have thus sketched, in outline, a gloomy picture, Peisecu- 
wherein the whip, the pillory, and the gallows, are exhib- Jiassachu- 
ited as weapons of offence in the hands of the elders of tionVof the 
Massachusetts. I have explored the long-silent recesses and of the 
of the Puritan Inquisition, and repeopled its dungeons England. 
with the victims of a narrow and austere faith. I have 
exhibited those great principles of intolerance, which our 
ancestors recorded in their histories and enrolled among 
their laws. And, regarded simply in a legal view, it is 
a startling fact, that every execution was a murder ; 
every mutilation, a maiming ; every whipping, a battery ; 
every fine, an extortion ; every disfranchisement, an out- 
rage ; and all were breaches of the charter. There 
were no laws in Eno'land for hanffing-, or mutilatine", or 
flogging the king's subjects, because they did not profess 
the Puritan faith ; while, to disfranchise a member of the 
corporation for any cause unconnected with the objects 
for which the charter was given, was a clear violation of 

1 Snow's History of Boston. It their animosity against them to a 

was this circumstance that probably late period. When the reforming 

gave occasion to the law passed the synod was held, in 1679, they attrib- 

same year, that no meeting-houses uted the general laxity of morals, in 

should be erected, without license of part, to those " false worshippers," 

the county court, and, in case the the Quakers and the Anabaptists, 

law should be transgressed, that all who had risen up " in opposition to 

such houses, with the land on which the churches of the Lord Jesus." 

they stood, should be forfeited to the Wherefore, it is concluded that these 

use of the county. Truth and In- things must necessarily be provoking 

nocency Defended, p. 102. to God, if they are not duly and 

'- Neal. fully testified against. 

3 The elders, however, retained 



22S INTOLERANCE OF 



CHAP, justice and authority.^ . Unless, then, we lay aside abstract 
^^-f-^ right and wrong", and disregard the nature of the charter, 
the liberty of the subject, the supremacy of parliament, 
the jurisdiction of the royal courts, the authority of the 
law, and the prerogative of the king, we cannot consider 
the persecutions of the elders of Massachusetts merely 
as acts of intolerance. They were, in any proper legal 
sense, violations of, and crimes against, the laws of Eng- 
land. For the king did not bestow upon the grantees of 
the charter the power of removing from the kingdom 
his " loving subjects," in order that they might deprive 
them of their ears, or their liberties, for refusing to con- 
form to a sectarian religion. Nor was the Familist, or 
the Quaker, or the Anabaptist, so much to blame as 
those who perverted a royal and sacred franchise to 
purposes which were hostile to the best interests of the 
empire. And, above all, it should be remembered that 
the Puritan Church is chiefly responsible for the guilt of 
these proceedings. The state was merely ^JCt^'ticeps crim- 
inis. For in all her doubts, and she entertained many as 
to her authority to act under the charter, she ever applied 
to the elders for counsel, and the elders uniformly sup- 
ported her claims and removed her indecision.^ 
Pcrsecu- Before closing this painful subject, let us compare the 

tion incon- . f -n • • ' ^ ^ ^ • ^ ^ 

sistcnt with practice 01 Furitanism in the western worla with the 

1 The old law was, that no free- that a corporation might remove a 

man of a corporation could be dis- member for a good cause. Tid- 

franchiscd by the act of the corpora- dcrley^s Case, i Sid. Rep. 14. And 

tion, unless the charter expressly this good cause was afterwards inter- 

confcrrcd the power, or it existed preted to be some offence that has 

by prescription. Hogg's Case, 11 an immediate relation to the duties 

Co. 99, a. It was while the Quak- of the party as corporator, i Burn, 

crs were undergoing persecution in Rep. 517. Sec 2 Kent's Com. p. 

Massachusetts, a quarter of a ccn- 297. Willcock on Mun. Corp. pp. 

tury after tlie banishment of Roger 271,272. 

Williams, and twenty years after - Winthrop. Hubbard. Mather, 

the disfranchisement ot Mr. Wheel- Neal, etc., ^ic, passim. 
Wright, that Sir Matthew Hale held 



THE PURITAN CHURCH. 2^9 

principles it avowed in England. It was the so-called 
intolerance of the English Church, which led to the 
establishment of sectarianism in the New World. Were claims of 
the authors of this movement consistent with their prin- ism. 
ciples ? They, who fled their country to raise a purer 
altar in the wilderness, ought not to be lightly regarded. 
If not deserving of praise, they are, at least, entitled to 
respect, in case sincerity and consistency marked their 
conduct. For if sincerity does not render an act vir- 
tuous, it strips it of its littleness ; and if consistency does 
not determine the quality of principles, it affects their 
fitness for moral action. And why did the fleet of Win- 
throp cast off from the shores of Albion ] Was it 
because of persecution ? No. To suffer in a good cause 
is noble, but to endure without complaint is heroic. And 
it is easy to believe that Cotton and Hooker and Wilson 
would have given an undying glory to Puritanism, had 
they been called to suSer at the stake. They freighted 
their ships, not with anathemas against the Church of 
England, but with that which their posterity have con- 
sidered as the most precious of human rights, liberty of 
conscience.^ They did not deem it incumbent upon 
them to conform to superstition and ceremonies, and they 
quietly bore away with them to other climes the right to 
think and worship as they pleased. It is this, and this 
alone, which makes an act, otherwise confessedly illegal, 
seem even brilliant and meritorious in the eyes of their 
descendants.^ Alas for the infirmity of human purpose ! 
There was some color for the proceedings of the courts 
of the star chamber and high commission. These were 

1 Address of the General Court " in awaking the common people to 
to " The High and Mighty Prince freedom of mind." As a general 
Charles II.," 1660. Hubbard. rule, the faith and usages of its fol- 

2 The avowed advocates of Puri- lowers are scoffed at over their very 
tanism claim for it no higher mis- graves. 

sion than that of being the agent 
20 



^0 INTOLERANCE OF 

^^{j^- at least performing a great and important duty to the 
' — " — ' cliurch and state. Both prescriptive and statute laws 
required the unqualified obedience of the subject. It was 
not the fact, but the manner of presenting the fact, that 
rendered these high tribunals odious. But what plea 
could Puritanism offer in defence of persecution 1 If 
Cotton was an Antinomian, if Dunster was an Anabap- 
tist, if Chauncey was a Baptist, if Endecott was a Sep- 
aratist, and Pynchon a heretic ; ^ if, in short, in the 
exercise of private judgment, there was exhibited, during 
the first charter, every shade of opinion concerning the 
most vital truths, by synods, elders, and magistrates, 
what pretext can be offered to excuse the persecution 
of those poor people, who but exercised the same priv- 
ilege 1 

Behold the three great classes of fanatics flying from 
the icy grasp of Puritanism to the hospitable colony of 
Roger Williams, himself a castaway. There, notwith- 
standing the thunders of the pulpits of Massachusetts, 
the forests echoed with the shouts of liberty. Full and 
perfect freedom of conscience, the motto of the first set- 
1663. tiers, afterwards guaranteed by royal charter, invited 
repose to the outlaw and fugitive.^ What though 
Roger Williams turned Seeker, after being twice bap- 
tized ! ^ What though dissent revelled in its very wan- 
tonness, until the grand discord deafened the ears of the 
Massachusetts elders ! ^ There the victims of persecu- 



1 In 1650, Pynchon published in condition of the inhabitants of Rhode 
England a work on the nature of Island, at the close of the seven- 
redemption, justification, etc., of teenth century, as follows : " A 
which several copies were burnt in colluvies of Antinomians, Familists, 
the market-place, in Boston, by the Anabaptists, Anti-Sabbatarians, Ar- 
public executioner. minians, Socinians, Quakers, Rant- 

2 Romanists alone were excepted, crs, and every thing but Roman 

3 Hubbard. Mather. Catholics and good Christians." 
* Mather describes the religious 



THE PURITAN CHURCH. 281 

tion could salute each other in safety ; and who will say part 
that their ravings, unmingled as they were with the dying ^^-v-^ 
imprecations of the red men, were not as acceptable as 
the sober prayers of the grave Puritans 1 



Part III. 



Mode of conducting the Puritan Missions — Thomas Mayhew — John 
Eliot — Results of these Missions — Causes of their Failure — The 
Puritan Church not entitled to the Credit of their Establishment — The 
Missions in New England contrasted with those of Virginia — With the 
Jesuit Missions in New France. 

The religious system of Massachusetts could not have 
claimed a missionary character. Even with their own 
countrymen, the Puritans were so rigorous that many 
were driven from their communion ; and their peculiar 
views " exceedingly hindered the conversion of the poor 
pagans. God, in great mercy, having opened a door in 
these last times to a new world of reasonable creatures, 
for this end, above all, that the gospel might be preached 
to them, the principles and the practice of the Independ- 
ents doth cross this blessed hope. What have they to do 
with those that are without? Their pastors preach not 
for conversion ! Of all that ever crossed the American 
seas, they are noted as inost neglectful of this work." ^ 
In this reproach all emigrants of " the reformed relig- 
ion " shared more or less, whether English, Scotch, 
French, or Dutch. Their " going thither was to small 
purpose for converting " the Indians.^ Send me some 

1 Baylie's Errors of the Time, ^ Humble Petition to Parliament, 
p. 60. Hazard, vol. i. p. 529. The States 



THE PURITAN CHURCH 



CHAP, missionaries, wrote Philip Bell, Governor of Barba- 

III. 
^-Y^ does, to John Winthrop, Governor of Massachusetts. 

1643. My g^overnment is distracted by the turbulent practices of 
the Familists, who have sprung up here, and I earnestly 
desire some godly ministers, and other good people. 
Winthrop imparted this request to the elders, " but none 
would go thither." ^ Send us some ministers, wrote 
" sundry well-disposed people " of Virginia, nearly at the 
same time ; and the elders of Massachusetts, ever ready 
to show flieir zeal against the Church, " set a day apart 
in which to seek God," and despatched into Virginia 
three of their number, " which might most easily be 
spared." ^ The charter of the colony declared, as we 
have seen, that the principal object of the franchise was 
the winning of the nativ^es of the country to a true 
knowledge of the Christian faith. It was not enough to 
pervert this royal grant ; for sixteen years, the conver- 
sion of the natives continued a matter of the utmost 
indifference to the elders of Massachusetts Bay. They 
seemed to consider their religion as a peculiar system of 
salvation, set apart by Providence for the elect, and not 
intended for heretics, blasphemers, or heathen. As for 
the red men, they were castaways ; their worship was 
devil-worship, and their deity was Satan.^ In this way 
alone can we account for the extraordinary indifference 
they manifested towards the Indians."* This was the 

General of Holland granted a char- i Winthrop. 

ter to the West India Company, 2 Winthrop. Hubbard. These 

which, though it gave a monopoly intruders upon the church were or- 

of trade on the African Coast, from dered to depart from Virginia upon 

the Tropic of Cancer to the Cape such a day, since they went thither 

of Good Hope, and, on the Amcri- not to do good, but to create trouble 

can, from the Straits of Magellan among churchmen, 

to " the remotest north," made not 3 Mather. 

the slightest allusion to, or provision ' Johnson mentions that Wilson, 

for, the conversion of the savages, at the first coming of the English, 

See the Charter, Hazard, vol. i. p. visited their sick, and instructed 

121. others, as they were capable to un- 



IN ITS MISSIONARY ASPECT. 2SS 

reason why even Cotton himself so soon forgot the 
advice he gave to the departing Pilgrims of the West. 
" Lastly," he said, " offend not the poor natives, but, as 
you partake in their land, so make them partakers of 
your precious faith ; as you reap their temporals, so feed 
them with your spirituals ; win them to the love of Christ 
for whom Christ died." ^ 

Feeling as they did towards the aborigines of New 
England, the Pilgrim Puritans had little success in 
their feeble missionary efforts. Their spiritual .labors 
among the natives, though well meant, produced nothing 
worthy of a divine and vital religious system. They 
commenced at the wrong end.^ To civilize these chil- 
dren of the forest, to teach them to dig and to wear 
hats, and their women to spin and make bread, to 
exchange the religion of nature for cold abstractions, was 
only to degrade them. Metamora, clad in his wild 
regalia, at the head of his braves on the hunting-path, 
or presiding over the deliberations of his old men at the 
council-fire, was every inch the embodiment of a rude and 
savage royalty. But Metamora, with close-cropped hair 
and steeple-crowned hat, with mustache, ruff, and hose, 
would be a mere mountebank. To denationalize the red 
men at once, was to demoralize them. The ill success of 
the Puritan missionary niay be traced not only to the 
falsity of his religion, but also to that ignorant zeal, 
which would turn the hunting-paths of the Indian into 
streets and squares, and convert his wigwams into 
houses. 

derstand him. But he seems soon 2 jf Christianity be of such vital 

to have tired of his labors, for the importance, asked the natives, how 

historian immediately adds, that does it happen that, for twenty-six 

"very little was done that way." years, the English have said nothing 

1 "God's Promise to His Planta- to us about it ? Hutchinson, vol. i. 

tion." See N. E. Hist, and Geneal. p. 150. 
Reg. Ap. 1848, p. 151. 

20* 



234 



THE PURITAN CHURCH 



Mode of 
conduct- 
ing the 
Puritan 1 
■missions. 



But the red man, though heathen, was not licentious. 
His morality in peace was more conspicuous than his 
cruelty in war. " Nothing unclean or filthy, like the 
heathen's feasts of Bacchus and Venus, was ever heard 
of amongst any of them." ^ His very religion, though 
incomplete, was gentle and harmonious. It was the 
religion of Nature. He saw the Great Spirit in all his 
glorious works, and they furnished him with an adequate 
ritual. And he, too, could find language in which to 
express his adoration of the mysterious God ; not invisi- 
ble, for had he not expressed himself in flowers, in 
streams of running water, in the lightning and the tem- 
pest ^^ He could worship and praise as well as his white 
brothers ; for the voice of Nature sounded fresh in his 
ears, and he echoed her truths in strains of glorious elo- 
quence. But, with all this, he was heathen ; for revelation 
had not yet disclosed to him the harmony of her awful 
voice. His soul was yet dark, like his skin. The origin 
of mankind was traced by this simple-hearted people to 
" a man and woman, made by their great God, of stone, 
which, upon a dislike, he broke to pieces, and made 
another man and woman of a tree, which were the foun- 
tains of all mankind."^ In such a condition, was this 
interesting people throAvn, by God's Providence, upon the 
mercy of the Puritan elders. 

In reviewing the early missions of Massachusetts, it 
is necessary that we should regard the manner in which 
they were conducted, as well as the results obtained, in 
order to arrive at a satisfactory conclusion. It was in 



1 Hubbard. appropriated, and so Infused itself into 

- To the savage, *' divinity was the heart of remotest tribes, that it 

broken, as it were, into an infinite came to be after considered as a por- 

numbcr of fragments ; " yet faith in tion of their original faith." See 

the one Great Spirit, " when once Bancroft, vol. iii. p. 286. 
presented, was promptly seized and 3 Mather. 



IN ITS MISSIONARY ASPECT. 285 

the year 164^3, that "the gentle Mayhew," in the island part 

of Martha's Vineyard, broke ground, as the first Puritan - — v-^ 

missionary in New England.^ He commenced his labors Mayhew. 
under peculiar advantages. By the zeal of a pious father, 

who obtained from the Earl of Stirling" a grant of the 1641. 

. October. 

islands of Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard, and the Eliza- 
beth Islands, a small settlement was formed, and the son 1642. 
was established as its minister.^ But " not feeling easy 
that his labors were confined to a handful of English," 
he studied the language of the natives, and commenced 
the arduous task of instructing them, in their own tongue, 
concerning the truths of revelation. One convert was 
easily made. Hiacoomes forsook the powwows of his 1643. 
tribe, and acknowledged himself a soldier of the cross. 
But here, for a time, Mayhew was forced to rest content. 
The savage is as sensitive to ridicule as the denizen of 
the town ; and all the other Indians " set up a great 
laughter " at their apostate countryman.^ Hiacoomes 
bore their insults with much fortitude, and was soon 
rewarded. A general sickness soon after swept over the 1645. 
island ; and " it was observed by the Indians, that they 
that did but give the hearing to good counsel did not 
taste so deeply of it," while he whom they had scoffed at 
as an Englishman entirely escaped its ravages.* Hia- 
coomes now became as a prophet to his tribe. He was 
sent for by the chief, to disclose to him " all that he knew 
and did in the ways of God. " 

This interview was productive of fortunate results for 

1 The Commissioners of the Unit- the Province Charter, and the elder 
ed Colonies, in writing to the Cor- Mayhew was governor as well as 
poration, in September, 1663, award proprietor of them. 

the honor of priority to Mayhew. 3 Mayhew's Letter to the Society 

See Hazard, vol. ii. p. 473. for Propagating the Gospel among 

2 See Hutchinson, vol. i. p. 151, the Indians, 165 1, (quoted by Neal.) 
n. These islands were not in the Hubbard. 

jurisdiction of Massachusetts until 4 Neal. Hubbard. 



286 THE PURITAN CHURCH 

Mayhew. The Indian chief began to reflect, whether 
the one great God of the EngHsli was not better than 
the thirty-seven deities acknowledged by his tribe, who 
had not preserved them from sickness. He desired May- 
hew to visit him, and told him that " many years ago his 
people had wise men, who tanght them knowledge, but 
that these were dead, and their wisdom was buried with 
them ; and now the Indians lived in ignorance till they 
were whiteheaded, and descended without wisdom to their 
graves. ' He then requested Mayhew to fill the place 
left vacant by the deceased sages of his tribe. The eager 
missionary seized upon this occasion with joy, and, though 
opposed by all the powwows of the island, he established 
a little congregation of worshippers. He preached, he 
prayed, he sung psalms, and answered questions. " His 
talent lay in a sweet and affable way of conversation," 
by which he won the affections of his wild converts, and 
exercised great control over their passions.^ He did not 
attempt to interfere with the municipal regulations of the 
Indians, nor to break up the relation existing between 
sachem and subject. He allayed the jealousy of the 
chiefs, by the declaration that, in no event, would the 
English exercise any control over their people ; and he 
set an example of industry and obedience to the tribe, 
by laboring with his own hands for the support of his 
family.^ 

The force of example was irresistible. The red men 
might not have comprehended the cold abstractions of 
Puritanism, but they felt and valued the fruits of pious 
integrity. They would open their ears to the impossible 
dogmas of the preacher, because they beheld the golden 
1650. life of the man. The Indians flocked to Mayhew by 

I Neal. Hubbard. Mather. 2 Whitfield's Collection of Let- 

ters, cited in Ncal. 



IN ITS MISSIONARY ASPECT. 237 

whole families, and in one day fifty adults embraced the part 
Puritan ftiith. While the elders and magistrates of Mas- — v — ' 
sachusetts were humbling the Narragansetts, by force of 
arms and cunningly-devised treaties, the solitary mission- 
ary on Martha's Vineyard was endeavoring to elevate the 
condition of the natives, by imparting to them a knowl- 
edge of the Gospel. His labors were crowded with signal 
success ; and to him has been ascribed, by the Puritan 
historians, the glory of having produced " the greatest 
appearance of any saving work amongst any" of the abo- 
rigines.^ The island was " in a manner leavened," with 
the principles of religion, when May hew, the first and most 
successful Puritan missionary in New England, sailed for i657. 
his native country, and was never heard of more. He 
left behind him a name which his beloved proteges could 
never hear without emotion ; and let it be considered the 
fault of a defective religious system rather than his own, 
that Christianity, except in name, did not long linger, 
after his decease, in the islands of Cape Cod.^ 

The example of May hew may have had some effect Joim Eiiot. 
upon the character of John Eliot. This zealous teacher 
was but a follower in the path of the former, and, perhaps, 
was roused to the work before him by observing, with mor- 
tification, how brightly the labors of Mayhew, young in 
years and experience, contrasted with the apathy of the 
elders of Massachusetts. Having, after "indefatigable i646. 
pains," acquired some knowledge of the Indian dialects,^ 
Eliot, at last, in the autumn of the year, assumed the office 

1 Hubbard. Mather. Neal, etc. berforce's Hist, of Amer. Church. 

2 Ibid. Bancroft. Thus, the expression, 

3 The principal difficulty in ac- "Take away, Lord, my stony heart," 
quiring a mastery of the Indian became, in the Indian dialect, '■^Ama- 
tongues was in understanding their naomen, Jeho'vah, tahassen metagh.'''' 
habit of clustering together, into So, " The day of asking questions," 
one word, the separate ideas, which, was, in Indian, " Natootomakteacke- 
In the languages of civilization, are suck." Moore's Life of Eliot. 
expressed by distinct words. Wil- 



23S THE PURITAN CHURCH 

of a missionary among" the neighboring- Indians of Rox- 
bury. His first act was proplietic of failure. Instead of 
going into their forests and among their wigwams, and 
preparing their minds for spiritual truths, by showing to 
them the fading glory of the material world, a party of 
savages was conducted into a large apartment, or wigwam, 
where he plunged at once into the mysteries and ceremo- 
nies of the Jewish law. He followed up this discourse by 
an account of our blessed Saviour, and how he would one 
day judge the world in a flaming fire. In the course of 
three hours, he had touched upon the creation of man, 
his fall, the greatness of God, the joys of heaven, the 
torments of hell, the necessity of repentance, and the 
advantages of a spiritual life ; to use his own expression, 
he "ran through all the principal matters of religion."^ 
The same thing was repeated a few days after, and, when 
the sermon was finished, some curious questions were put 
by his wondering hearers, showing the effect of such 
appeals to the spiritual nature of the untutored savage. 
Can an old man, like me, so near death, repent ? asked one, 
terrified at the prospect of the burning hell so glowingly 
described by Eliot. How, asked another and younger 
Indian, does it happen that sea water is salt and river 
water fresh 1 If, said a third, the water is higher than 
the earth, why does it not overflow all the earth ? 2 

This company formed the nucleus of the Indian mis- 
sions of Massachusetts. Eliot was untiring in his zeal, 
1647. and, in the following year, had persuaded a small number 
to forsake " devil-worship," and to acknowledge the true 
God.^ So far, his system did not materially differ from 
that of Mayhew. But he soon planned that unhappy 

i Moore's Life of Eliot. 3 Hubbard. Neal. Mather. 

2 Neal. Daybreaking of the Gos- 
pel in New England. 



IN ITS MISSIONARY ASPECT. 239 

scheme, which, more than any thing else, served to 
embitter tlie Indian chiefs against the tenets of Puritan- 
ism. He determined to separate the wheat from the 
chaff", and not only to make his neophytes Christians, but 
to teach them the habits of civilization. For this pur- 
pose, it was necessary to withdraw his converts from the 
allegiance they owed to their natural sovereigns. He 
applied to the general court for a grant of land, which, ^^"y^ 
having obtained, he named Nonantum, or Rejoicing, and 
there collected his little company. He drew up for them 
a simple code of laws, wherein they bound themselves to 
forsake the customs of the forest, and to till the ground 
instead of following the chase. In the same month, the 
general court extended its jurisdiction over them, and 
established for their benefit courts of justice, which before 
had been unneeded.^ 

Another small company of Indians soon followed the 
example of those of Nonantum, and established at Con- 
cord a second community of Christian Indians. They 
abandoned powwowing, gave up howling, and greasing 
their bodies, and agreed to pray to the true God, and say 
grace before and after meat. These were the foundations 
laid by Eliot, on which he hoped to erect a structure 
that should rival the proudest achievements of Rome. 
A year had scarcely elapsed since he commenced his 
arduous work, and his converts, though few in number, 
seemed zealous and sincere. Their flexible limbs were 
growing accustomed to the shovel, the mattock, and the 
crow-bar ; and the hum of the spinning-wheel might 
have been heard in many a family, which had been famil- 
iar only with the sound of the whoop. " Clear Sunshine 
of the Gospel upon the Indians " rapidly followed its 

1 Clear Sunshine of the Gospel ther. Neal. Hutchinson. Colony 
upon the Indians. Hubbard. Ma- Laws. 



164a 



24-0 THE PURITAN CHURCH 

" Daybreak." ^ The fame of Eliot and Mayhew was 
carried to England, and the parliament of that distracted 
country, but a short time after it had murdered its sov- 

Juiv. ereign, gave " glory to God for the beginning of so 
glorious a propagation," and established a corporation in 
England for " furthering the work." ^ Collections were 
taken, by authority, in all the parishes in England, which 
produced a sum sufficient for an annual income, and 
which Avas dispensed by the greatest enemies the red 
men had, the Commissioners for the United Colonies.^ 
Eliot was now animated to increased exertions. Puri- 
tanism spread along the banks of the Charles, and soon 
the praying Indians were strong enough to build a town 

1651. for themselves, seventeen miles west of Boston, at Natick, 
or The Place of Hills. They laid out their new abode 
into three long streets, with house lots on both sides ; 
and they had their rulers of tens, of fifties, and of hun- 
dreds, according to the plan proposed by Jethro to 
Moses.^ But triumphs such as these related only to the 



1 " Daybreak " was published in land. Neal. Mather. Hubbard. 
London, in 1647, and "Clear Sun- They subscribed the following cov- 
shine," at the same place, in the fol- enant: "We are the sons of Adam; 
lowing year. we and our forefathers have a long 

2 Neal. Hutchinson. Hazard, time been lost in our sins, but now 
vol. i. p. 635. the mercy of the Lord beginneth to 

3 Ibid. Hugh Peters, says Hutch- find us out again; therefore, the 
inson, was one of the collectors ; grace of Christ helping us, we do 
but the Corporation wrote to the give ourselves and our children unto 
Commissioners, that he not only re- God, to be his people. He shall 
fused to pay a penny himself, but rule us in all our affairs. The Lord 
discouraged others. See Hutchin- is our Judge, the Lord is our Law- 
son, vol. i. p. 155, n. Some writers giver, the Lord is our King. He 
have ascribed it to the influence of will save us, and the wisdom which 
Hugh Peters that the Pilgrim Puri- God has taught us in his book shall 
tans so neglected the spiritual wants guide us. O ! Jehovah ! teach us 
of the Indians. See i Mass. Hist, wisdom ; send thy Spirit into our 
Coll. vol. vi. p. 253. Eliot's Biog. hearts ; take us to be thy people, 
Diet. p. 376. The Calendar News- and let us take thee to be our God." 
paper, Hartford, June 5, 1847. See Dunton's Mem. 2 Mass. Hist. 

■1 Manifestation of the Further Coll. vol. ii. p. 114. 
Progress of the Gospel in New Eng- 



IN ITS MISSIONARY ASPECT. 24<1 

instincts of the savage, and the missionary longed for 
complete evidence of a growth in spiritual life. He had 
succeeded in breaking up powwowing among his followers, 
but few or none had exhibited signs of " true conver- 
sion." What, then, must have been his joy, when, in the 
presence of an imposing assembly of the elders and 
magistrates of Massachusetts, fourteen or fifteen of the 
praying Indians made public profession of the Puritan 1652. 
faith 1 ^ His highest ambition was yet to be gratified. 
The little band, that had thus avowed the deepest repent- 
ance for their past sins, were still excluded from the 
ordinances of baptism and the Lord's Supper, by the 
scruples of their rigid audience. Further trials of their 
faith were thought necessary ; and it was not until eight 
years after, that Eliot, " being commissioned by his church 166O. 
in Roxbury," first baptized forty of the Natick Indians, 
and, when they had joined in the covenant, administered 
to them the Lord's Supper.^ 

Thus, this ardent missionary ushered into life the eldest 
offspring of his severe labors. Besides Natick, there 
were fourteen other towns, averaging fifty souls, who 
professed the God of the Christians ; and when King 
Philip's war broke out, there were eleven hundred In- 1674. 
dians who " yielded obedience to the Gospel." ^ But the 
Indian society at Natick continued dear as an only child, 
to the close of his life. Here he first administered to 
the Indians the communion of the Lord's Supper. He 
fed them not only Avith sermons, but with primers, cate- 

1 Mr. Eliot noted these confes- 3 Gookin's Hist. Acct. of In- 
sions, and published them in 1653, dians. These towns were in Stough- 
under the title, " Tears of Repent- ton, Grafton, Marlborough, Tewks- 
ance." bury, Littleton, Hopkinton, Oxford, 

2 Neal. Ten years after, the Woodstock, Worcester, Sterling, and 
number of communicants had not Uxbridge. 

reached fifty. Gookin's Hist. Acct. 
of Indians. 

21 



24>2 THE PURITAN CHURCH 

chisms, and other compositions, which he from time to 
time translated into the uncouth dialect of the Indians. 
1664. And the crowning glory of his life was giving to his 
flock, in their own tongue, the Holy Bible ; a book 
which, by reason of private judgment, has puzzled the 
great and the learned, has been the means of shedding 
torrents of human blood, and which has torn the Chris- 
tian world into shapeless fragments.^ Eliot lived to see 
some of his neophytes exercising ministerial functions ; 
and his declining years were cheered by the strange spec- 
tacle of the red hunters of the West discoursing in the 
Puritan pulpits upon the highest mysteries of the Chris- 
tian religion.^ 
Results of While Mayhew and Eliot were proclaiming " glad 
sions. tidings " in their respective colonies, Leverich, Bourne, 
and others, conmienced the same work in Plymouth, and 
Fitch and Pierson in Connecticut.^ As the results of 
all these efforts, there were, towards the close of the sev- 
1687. enteenth century, in the whole of New England, but six 
Indian societies, regularly organized, and in communion 
with the established church.* The number of catechu- 
mens, or Indians in training, was much larger ; but these 
were more fond of the allurements of civilization than 
the mortification of those appetites which their new mode 
of life had called into active play. Such were the New 
England missions in their palmiest days. Their decline, 
hastened as it was by the shock received by the wars 
of King Philip, during which many praying to\Mis 



1 The Roman Catholics prepared 3 No Indian society was ever 
for the aborigines of Mexico twenty- gathered in Connecticut ; some few 
four dictionaries and forty-five gram- were converted, but, in general, they 
mars. Thomas's Hist, of Printing, manifested great repugnance to the 
p. 193. Coit's Hist, of the Puritans, Blue Law Religion. rrumbull. 

p. 515. 4 Letter of Increase Mather, cited 

2 Mather. Neal. Hubbard. in Neal. Mather. 



IN ITS MISSIONARY ASPECT. 243 

were entirely broken up, proved more rapid than part 
their rise. The Indian converts found themselves ^-^> — ' 
neither happier nor wiser in their new condition. They 
were hated by their own race, and were despised and 
treated as inferiors by the whites.^ So little confidence 
did the people generally have in the praying Indians, 
that, during the wars above alluded to, it was openly 
threatened to slaughter them in cold blood. Gookin and 
Danforth, who protected them in this emergency, excited 
popular odium. " Some generous spirits " formed secret 
societies in Boston, to plot for their destruction ; and 
placards were posted about the streets, warning them to 1675. 
prepare for death.^ So long as the missionaries continued 
their zeal, they were able to maintain, in the hearts of 
the converted Indians, a doubtful enthusiasm. But, after 
the death of Eliot, they soon grew weary of the fruitless 
task of endeavoring, by moral training, to eradicate those 
instincts which had been developing for centuries. The 
ardor of the missionaries, in consequence, declined, and 
the praying Indians were left more to themselves. A 
rapid decay of industry and morality was at once per- 
ceptible among them ; and, before the dawn of the 
eighteenth century, their numbers were on the decrease.^ 1695. 
Those that remained were, for the most part, " poor, 
ragged, mean, and contemptible." Not only did all 
efforts fail to train successfully the Indian youth for the 
" ministry," because of " their slothfulness and love of 
strong liquors," but the natives were " unable even to 
support a ministry." * So fond were they of spirituous 

1 " From their color and other as equals." A candid admission 

qualities," says Grahame, " even from this writer. 

ivhcn kindly treated^ they were re- ~ See N. E. Hist. Gen. Reg. 

garded with little respect by the April, 1849, p. 125. 

white colonists, who considered them 3 Neal. 

rather as children and inferiors than 4 The " native preachers," some- 



2U 



THE PURITAN CHURCH 



1721. 



Causes of 
their fail- 
ure. 



liquors, that they would sell all they possessed to procure 
them. To this vice, they added slothfulness. " They 
observed, indeed, one part of the fourth commandment, to 
keep holy the Sabbath day ; but they neglected the other, 
six days shalt thou labor. "^ "There is a cloud, a dark 
cloud, upon the work of the Gospel upon the poor 
Indians," were the last words of the self-denying Eliot.^ 
Well might he thus say, in the spirit of prophecy. 
Thirty-one years after his death, not a trace of the 
" Indian Church " remained at Natick ; and the curious 
inquirer, who at that time visited " The Place of Hills," 
entered upon his record, that, " after the most diligent 
inquiry and research, he could find no records of any 
thing referring to the former church in Natick, nor who 
were the members of it, or baptized." ^ 

A more signal failure than these missions exhibited 
has seldom been recorded. When we consider that the 
number of Indians destroyed in Massachusetts and Con- 
necticut, by the votaries of Puritanism, has been esti- 
mated at upwards of one hundred and eighty thousand,* 
and that twelve thousand is a large estimate for the 
number, including catechumens, that acknowledged Chris- 
tianity, we are dismayed at the result, and are led to 
inquire the cause of facts so startling. The melancholy 



times mentioned by the Puritan 
writers, were not regularly licensed 
ministers, but a sort of nondescript, 
between schoolmasters and Sunday- 
school teachers. 

1 Mather. Neal. The Puritan 
writers mention it as a great tri- 
umph, that one Indian youth suc- 
ceeded in obtaining a bachelor's 
degree at Harvard College. It was, 
I believe, a solitary case. 

2 Moore's Life of Eliot. Ma- 
ther. 

^ Peabody. Sec Moore's Life of 
Eliot. Mr. P. commenced de novo, 



and, during twenty-nine years of 
ministry, he admitted to his society 
thirty-five Indians. After his death, 
little more attention was paid to 
them, and, in 1822, one solitary de- 
scendant of Eliot's disciples walked 
the streets of Natick. 

■< Hist, of Conn, cited in Wil- 
berforce's Hist, of Amer. Church. 
Three thousand is the largest num- 
ber given, by the contemporary writ- 
ers, of the praying Indians in their 
best days, including catechumens, 
women, and children. 



IN ITS MISSIONARY ASPECT. 245 

¥ 

fruits of the Puritan missions, as exhibited by the pray- 
ing Indians, reveal at once the secret of their ill success. 
They appealed to the spiritual nature of the savages 
alone. They attempted, at one blow, to substitute the 
ideal for the actual. A picture, a cross, the simplest 
work of art, would have aided their cause. But elec- 
tion, justification by faith, and sanctification, were the 
constant themes of their discourse, and were never com- 
prehended by the savage. They considered him, from 
the first, as utterly and wholly fallen.-^ The two great 
deities of the Indians were Kiehtan, the Good Being, 
and Hobomacko, or Abomacho, the Evil Being ; and 
because, finding more of pain and evil in this life than 
good, they deprecated the ill-will of the Evil Being, the 
Puritans wrongfully ascribed to them devil-worship, and 
endeavored to substitute one invisible for another by 
abstract reasoning. To all this, their hearers gave an 
involuntary assent. Many converts continued to believe 
in the gods they formerly served, declaring them to 
be spirits of great power, and subordinate only to the 
God of the Christians. When threatened with " witch- 
craft," by their powwows, for abandoning the religion of 
their fathers, some recanted ; while others replied, " We 
do not deny your power, but we serve a greater God, 
who is so much above your deities that he can defend us 
from them, and even enable us to trample upon them 



1 The Commissioners of the Unit- before they were admitted to the 
ed Colonies intimated doubts to Mr. Eucharist. The possession of these 
Eliot of the full success of his labors, coveted articles had more influence 
so early as 165 1 ; and, in 1655, they over their minds than all the horrors 
plainly declared to him that many of Paganism, and, at last, the evil 
of his converts proved " loose and became so apparent, that the com- 
false." Previously, they had, at his missioners interfered to check this 
request, distributed among the most novel mode of conversion, fearing 
zealous of his converts guns, pow- the consequences of placing arms in 
der, and shot, and they were thus the hands of so many doubtful con- 
taught the use of the musket long verts. See Haz. vol. ii. pp. 125,332. 
21 * 



«24^6 THE PURITAN CHURCH 

all."^ Such was the spiritual condition of the disci- 
ples of Eliot and Mayhew, with perhaps a few rare 
exceptions. 

Another grand obstacle in the way of success was the 
force of example.^ The Indians saw but little unity 
among the Puritan Christians. They beheld, that while 
many of them differed as to the nature of religion, the 
stronger party in power would frequently determine the 
difference by the application of the whip, by imprison- 
ments, banishments, and sometimes death. " We value 
not your Gospel, which shows so many roads to God," 
said some Connecticut Indians ; " some of them must be 
crooked, and lead to the Evil Spirit." 

These, and other kindred reasons, are amply sufficient 
to account for the deplorable condition of the praying 
Indians. But they will scarce explain the deadly hatred 
manifested by the true Indian patriot to the religion and 
life of the Puritans. The missions scarcely extended 
beyond the squalid groups who inhabited the woods 
near Boston, and the timid, isolated tribes that dwelt 
upon the islands of Cape Cod. Why was it that the 
great clans of the interior preferred, until the last, the 
howling dance of their poAVAvows to the pulpit displays 
of the Puritan elders ? The reason is obvious. It was 
not because of the abstractions of the Puritan religion, 
for of these they knew little or nothing ; but because 
the independence of their several races, their habits, 
which they loved better than life, their lands, their sim- 
ple glories, all vanished, like the morning dew, before 



1 Ncal. Mather. spirituous liquors : by them the In- 

- Grahame has the assurance to dians were defrauded of their lands ; 

say, that the character and habits of and they filled up the ranks of those 

the lay colonists promoted the pious godly troops that slaughtered them 

exertions of the missionaries. From by tribes. 

them the Indians learned to love 



IN ITS MISSIONARY ASPECT. 24<7 

the progress of a grasping and selfish system. The 
missions were tainted with fraud and injustice. Eliot's 
system was based on a species of treason, which, if he 
had practised towards the subjects of a civilized nation, 
would have rendered his life a just forfeit to the laws. 
His neophytes were taught a total disregard of all honor 
and fealty. If the sachems remonstrated with the mis- 
sionary, and prohibited him from shaking the fidelity of 
their subjects, the reply was : " I am about the work of 
the great God, and my God is with me ; so that I fear 
neither you, nor all the sachems in the country ; I will go 
on, and do you touch me if you dare," ^ To become 
a Christian, he made it necessary to become a traitor.^ 
Where did the Puritan State procure its spies? Where its 
bloodhounds 1 Where its most effective auxiliaries in the 
patriotic struggle of King Philip 1 ^ From the Christian 
town of Natick, where the psalm was sung, the sermon 
preached, and the prayer offered. 

No wonder " the Indian princes " complained that 
their converted subjects no longer paid tribute as for- 
merly.^ No wonder that, when Eliot made " a tender 
of everlasting salvation " to King Philip, " the monster 
entertained it with contempt, and, taking a button from 
the coat of the reverend man, added, that he cared for 
his Gospel just as much as he cared for that button."^ 

1 Moore's Life of Eliot. See New England First Fruits, 1643, 

2 See Hazard, vol. ii. p. 316. p. 7, by Mr. Shepherd. 

3 Wequash was the first praying 4 Neal. 
Indian in Massachusetts. He guided ^ Mather. The spirit displayed 
the English forces against his tribe, by this writer seems sometimes to 
the Pequods, and was struck with contrast singularly with what one 
such admiration at the victory gained might expect from a minister of 
over them by the English, that he Christ. On relating the anecdote 
embraced the Christian religion, in the text, he adds, for the comfort 
Thissimple wretch owed his "change of his readers, that his own hand, 
of heart" to deeds that cannot be upon some occasion, "took off the 
thought of without a shudder. Neal. jaw from the exposed skull of that 

blasphemous leviathan." 



248 THE PURITAN CHURCH 

CHAP. What need was there to translate the Bible into a dialect, 
' — ,^^ which the cruelty of its teachers was soon to make one 
of the dead languages of the earth ^ 

Until the grave closed over the last warrior, or the 
last chief had, from the deck of the slave-ship, hid the 
shores of New England farewell forever, the Pequods, 
the Narragansetts, the Wampanoags, and the Mohegans 
nourished a deadly hatred towards the religion of New 
England. The final words, uttered by the remnants of 
these tribes, as recorded by the historian, breathe the same 
spirit. One of the last sachems of a branch of the Nar- 
ragansetts said to a missionary, in the beginning of the 
eighteenth century, who desired " to preach the Gospel " 
to his people, "go and make the English good first." 
He objected, further, that some of the English kept 
Saturday, others Sunday, and others no day at all for 
the worship of God, so that he did not know which was 
the true religion. Some said that the Indians who 
professed Christianity frequently left the English, and 
joined with their enemies ; which they would not do, if it 
were so excellent a thing as was pretended. Others 
said that they could not see that men were the better for 
being Christians ; for the English would defraud the 
Indians of their lands, and wrong them in other ways; and 
that their knowledge of books did but make them more 
cunning to cheat the simple.^ On the whole, those who 
pride themselves on their Puritan origin have good reason 
to blush for the missionary schemes of their ancestors. It 
does not appear that Christianity, as taught by them to the 
Indians, ennobled their characters, increased their sense 
of honor, or added to their self-respect. We find, in 
the extravagant relations of the Puritan writers, no pray- 



1 Ncal. 



IN ITS MISSIONARY ASPECT. 249 

ing Indian who excites our sympathies as does King part 
PhiHp, who, true to the principles of his fathers, refused "^^^ — ' 
the Puritan Gospel, and afterwards repudiated Puritan 
friendship. God only knows if he was wrong in so 
doing. A merciful Judge will consider the nature of his 
provocation. 

The labors of Eliot and M ayhew, unfortunate as were The Puri- 
their results, redeemed the Puritan communion from dis- not entitled 
grace. Yet it must be remembered that, while the latter it of these 

•11 1T11T' r -\T missions. 

had no connection with the established relioion of JVlas- 
sachusetts, the efforts of both were voluntary and spon- 
taneous. Eliot, as well as Mayhew, "began his work 
unpatronized."^ These zealous missionaries were not sent 
into the field by the elders or magistrates of Massachu- 
setts ; they entered upon their labors on their own respon- 
sibility, and the missions were supported, almost entirely, 
by funds from England. It is true that the general 
court, in 1646, passed an order to encourage the "hope- 
ful work " among the Indians, and recommended the 
subject to the attention of the elders ; but it does not 
appear that any thing was done in consequence, beyond 
granting the unhappy catechumens a tract of land.^ The 
Puritan Church maintained a profound indifference to the 
work, except as a subject of curiosity. The credit of 
supporting missionaries among the Indians is due to the 
Society for Propagating the Gospel. And though their 
charter was vacated on the accession of Charles II., they 



1 Moore's Life of Eliot. English were jealous of the praying 

2 An order passed the general Indians, and would have destroyed 
court, in May 26, 1647, to give them, had not Gookin and Eliot 
Eliot ten pounds, as a gratuity for prevented it. They had no confi- 
instructing the Indians in the knowl- dence in them, and appeared to be 
edge of God. This would seem to utterly indifferent to their welfare, 
show that he was not employed by Gookin's Hist. Acct. of Indians, 
the general court. In 1675, when Mass. Hist. Col. vol. I. 

King Philip's war broke out, the 



250 THE PURITAN CHURCH 

CHAP, obtained a new one from the king, with further priv- 

^^ — ' ileges, anil, while New England continued subject to the 

mother country, chose commissioners therein, to oversee 

the work and to distribute the charities.' It may here 

165G. be mentioned, that expressions of surprise were often 
manifested by the society, that so few were engaged in 
this important work ; and the generous remittances made 
by its members to the order of the commissioners, were 
often accompanied with hints of the imputations under 
which the colonies labored in England.^ Perhaps the 
surprise would have been less, if they had known that 
the very year in which the commissioners were excusing 
themselves from such charges, they commended to the 
general courts of the several colonies the propriety of 
providing " mastiffe dogs," to be made use of against the 
Indians, in case of any disturbance with them.^ In the 

1057. following year, the commissioners themselves complained 
that there was " much want of meet and pious instru- 
ments to carry on the work."^ The reasons of the failure 
of the Puritan Missions have been briefly pointed out; 
and candor now demands that the system of Eliot be 

1 These commissioners were, un- the small allowance he received from 

til the forfeiture of the charter, the the commissioners. Hazard, vol. ii. 

commissioners of the United Colo- pp. 211, 332. Mr. Peters "told 

nies ; afterwards, they were private Mr. Winslow in plain terms that the 

gentlemen of wealth or standing. work was but a cheat." In 1657, the 

~ There is good reason to think, society rebuked the commissioners for 
from Randolph's Letters, in Hutch- paying the missionaries in commo- 
inson's Collection of Papers, that dities of native growth, instead of 
the funds of the society were not money, or goods in kind, according 
faithfully administered. So, in the to the price they cost in England. 
Records of the Commissioners of the Hazard, vol. ii. p 375. Down to the 
United Colonies, it is painfullycvident time of Gov. Hutchinson, mission- 
that the funds collected in England aries were supported among the 
were, in part, at least, expended in Indians, notwithstanding the utter 
arms and ammunition for the benefit failure of having produced any rad- 
of the colonies. Sec Hazard, vol. ical change or good ellect. Hutch- 
ii. p. 298. That this was done to inson,vol. i. p. 155, n. 
the detriment of the mission, may 3 Hazard, vol. ii. p. 359. 
be gathered from the fact, that Mr. 4 Ibid. p. 371. 
Eliot repeatedly made complaint of 



IN ITS MISSIONARY ASPECT. 251 

contrasted with other rehgious systems having the same takt 
end in view. '-•'^- ' 

In Virginia was estabhshed a mission of the An^'Hcan The mis- 

'^ "-^ sions of 

Church : and the question may be asked, wliat was done New Eng- 

^ •' _ _ land con- 

there for the eternal welfare of the aborigines % Many tmsted 

" ^ •' with those 

expeditions had been made to this country during the of Virginia. 
reign of Elizabeth, in all of which, " compassion of poor 
infidels," and " the honor of God," were conspicuous 
objects. But the charter of James I. established a per- 
manent settlement in that fertile territory; and it was 1^06. 
expressly ordered therein, that the worship of God should 
be conducted "according to the rite and doctrines of the 
Church of England, not only in the said colonies, but 
also, as much as might be, amongst the savages border- 
ing upon them ; and that all persons should kindly treat 
the heathen in those parts, and use all proper means to 
draw them to the true service and knowledge of God." ^ 
And these were the principles upon which the settle- 
ment was formed. The Indians were treated with kind- 
ness and friendship. The corporation impressed upon its 
governors the importance of using "all probable means 
of bringing over the natives to the knowledge of God 
and his true religion ; to which purpose, the example 
given by the English, in their own persons and families, 
will be of singular and chief moment." ^ But the mis- 
sionaries made the mistake of the Puritans of New 
England, in endeavoring to eradicate at once that wild 
love of liberty, which was as hereditary with the Indian 
as the color of his skin. Instead of assuming the habits 
of the forest, and adopting the customs of the wilderness, 
they endeavored to civilize, at the same time that they 
converted them. As civilized men, they could be but 

1 Stith, b. il. 2 Ibid. b. iv. p. 210. 



252 THE PURITAN CHURCH 

inferior ; and, as inferior, they must be degraded.^ 
Yet one illustrious example stands out, in these mission- 
ary annals of Virginia, whose memorable act of hero- 
ism adorns the history of that ancient commonwealth. 
Almost the first savage baptized into the Anglican Church 
was the heathen princess, Pocahontas. Did Whitaker, 
when he performed that touching ceremony, from a rude 
font, " hewn hollow, like a canoe," from the trunk of a 
tree, foresee that God would place upon it the seal of his 
approbation, and that the lapse of two centuries would 
find her blood in the veins of distinguished members of 
the church he was then founding 1 ^ 

Proceeding on wrong, yet generous principles, the 
eflforts of the Virginia Company were directed towards 
colleges and cultivation, rather than that happy blending 
of religion and nature which the Jesuits only accom- 
plished. It is impossible to judge how far they would 
have been successful. The interests of the company 
conflicted with the duties of the church, and the alarm 
of the aborigines began to be roused by the rapid absorp- 
tion of their lands. Civilization was snatching from 
them the empire of the forest, and the cavaliers of the 
Old World disdained to mingle their blood with that of 
the sachems of the New.^ Thus their territories were 
gradually passing away from their posterity forever, and 
who could say whether their children would dwell upon 
the fertile shores of Chesapeake Bay ? An Indian coa- 
lition, formed for the deadliest purposes, proved how 
deeply the natives felt the insult to their race. The 
Euirlish Church had to learn the lesson, that, if she 

1 See Stith, b. iv. p. 195. and they were "painfully stung " by 

2 Hawk's Mem. of the Church the disdain with which the English 
in Virginia. Bancroft. treated their advances for such intcr- 

3 The destiny of Pocahontas had marriages. Beverly. Grahame. 
roused the ambition of the savages. 



IN ITS MISSIONARY ASPECT. 258 

would improve the savage, she must stoop and accom- part 
modate herself to his rugged nature. Her labors of ' — y-^ 
love were succeeded by a war of extermination ; and the 
colonists of Jamestown, who, in the infancy of their 
settlement, had been preserved from starvation by the 
generous donations of the Indians, were now obliged, 
having provoked their deadly hatred, to resort to an exter- 
minating war. The failure of the Anglican Church is 
attributable, not to pride or indifference, not to a pharisa- 
ical spirit, which regarded God's ignorant creatures as 
the peculiar property of Satan ; but rather to the thought- 
less pride of civilization, together with the fact that, for 
the first time using her limbs, after being cramped for 
centuries, she knew not her own power, and lacked the 
great art which experience alone can supply.^ 

Rome, the peculiar bugbear of Puritanism, was des- The Jes- 
tined to be preemnient m the missionary labors of the scions in 
New World. It may be worth while to pause a moment, France. 
and examine whether the red men had most cause to be 
grateful to the followers of Calvin or to the disciples of 
Loyola. 

Pure Romanism was, perhaps, never exhibited more 
gracefully than in the French and English settlements of 
the New World. Here, the fagot never burned, and 
the only inquisition used was one of mercy. The inquiry 
was not, are you a heretic, but are you a sinner. Not, 
are you rich, but are you poor. Not, whether you have 
scoffed at bits of the true cross, or ridiculed the sacred 
pomp of high mass, but are you willing to learn of that 
cross, and to glorify the Divine Man who suffered thereon 

1 The English missions in the tanism, as exhibited in the Sandwich 

East Indies and the Pacific Islands Islands. It is to be hoped that her 

fully show what the Anglican Church missionaries will soon have courage 

can do, and present a pleasing con- to penetrate the vast territories of 

trast to the wretched results of Puri- the Hudson's Bay Company. 
22 



254 



THE PURITAN CHURCH 



CHAP. 
III. 



for all mankind. Such was the spirit of Romanism in 
the forests of North America ! Such the flame that 
burned in the hearts of this zealous priesthood ! 

The self-denial ^ and the success of the Roman mis- 
sionaries in New France are alike remarkable. Long 
before the May Flower entered Massachusetts Bay, the 
Franciscans had connnenced their sacred labors on the 
coasts of Maine ; side by side, the cross and the fleur- 
de-lis moved into the wilderness, marching' not to the 
sound of the drum, but to the solemn tones of the Gre- 
gorian chant. The Jesuits, succeeding the Franciscans, 
carried on the holy work, unchecked by snows, or for- 
ests, or torrents, until, within a few years, the vast 
basin of the St. Lawrence, from Quebec to Lake Supe- 
rior, was dotted with rude chapels, in which the sacred 
wafer, " all that the church offered to the princes and 
nobles of Europe, was shared with the humblest savage 
neophytes." " And, five years before Eliot, the Indian 
apostle of New England, had commenced his labors 
among the neighboring tribes of Boston, the cross of 
the Gallican Church overlooked the valley of the Missis- 
sippi.^ The order of Jesus had revived the magic of an 
apostolic age. 



1 While the Puritan missionaries 
received salaries, which, at this day, 
would be considered generous, and 
never abandoned the comfortable 
residences of civilization to penetrate 
the forest, the Roman priest com- 
menced his labor as one of self- 
denial. Kliot received fifty pounds 
as missionary, also his salarj' as min- 
ister of his society, besides gratuities 
from private sources. See Hazard, 
vol. ii. pp. 313, 314, 393. 

2 Bancroft. 

■^ " In the western wilds, they 
were the earliest pioneers of civiliza- 
tion and faith. The adventurous 
traveller, penetrating the forests. 



came to new and strange tribes, and 
found that, years before, the Jesuits 
had preceded him in that wilderness. 
Traditions of the black robe still 
lingered among the Indians. On 
some moss-grown tree, the wild 
hunter deciphered, carved side by 
side on its trunk, the emblem of our 
salvation and the lilies of the Bour- 
bons." Kip's Jesuit Missions. 
Such was the jealousy and hatred 
with which the Puritans viewed 
these missions, that they made it 
mcjre meritorious to slay the con- 
verts of Rome than the "devil wor- 
shippers " of the woods. See Hutch- 
inson, vol. i. p. 158, n. 



IN ITS MISSIONARY ASPECT. ^55 

It is not difficult to discover the secret of this match- part 
less series of triumphs. The object of the Jesuit was to ^ — ^ — ■ 
civiHze, through the softening effects of rehgion ; of the 
Puritan, to make rehgious through the moral power of 
civilization. So, while the latter conniienced his task by 
the forcible expulsion of the instincts and habits of the 
savage ; the other, conforming to his outward life, pos- 
sessed himself of that key to all human action, the 
HEART. The Indian proselyte loved the Jesuit. He 
felt towards him none of that awe that Puritanism was 
calculated to inspire. The man of learning, the scholar, 
and the gentleman became as a brother to the children 
of the wilderness.^ He lived in their wigwams, smoked 
their pipes, and ate of their venison.^ He shared their 
hardships, and sympathized with their joys. In a word, 
acting upon the apostolic rule, " with the weak he became 
as weak, in order that he might gain the weak." ^ Can 
we wonder that Rome succeeded, and that Geneva failed? 
Is it strange that " the tawny pagans," " the rabid 
wolves," " the grim salvages," * fled from the icy em- 
brace of Puritanism, and took refuge in the arms of the 
priest and Jesuit ? ^ 

But it is not alone because the Jesuit adopted the Indian 
habits, and became as one of the tribe he was proselyt- 
ing, that he was blessed with success. This but fur- 
nished him with his moral lever. Instead of demolishing 



1 " Many of them were men * Such are some of the expres- 
who had stood high in courts and sions used by the Puritan writers 
camps." Kip's Jesuit Missions, concerning the Indians. 

" The priests went into their coun- ^ Eliot himself was aware of the 

try, and dwelt among them ; suffered importance of the missionaries' ac- 

them to retain their old customs, commodating themselves to the hab- 

and conformed to them themselves." its of the Indians; and, for this 

Hutchinson. purpose, endeavored to train up 

2 Colden's Five Nations, vol. i. Indian preachers, a scheme which 
p. 6o. miserably failed. Moore's Life of 

3 I Corinthians, ch. ix. Eliot, p. 76. 



*2o6 THE PURITAN CHURCH 

CHAP, the natural religion of the Indians, he directed its energy, 
^^A^ and inspired it with an ohject. In his eyes, it was 
the rough block, which he was to chisel into life and 
beauty. Nature furnished him with materials ; it was 
his business to produce the image. And, with true 
knowledge of the world and the human heart, he saw 
that the savages, possessing uncultivated intellects, could 
only be thoroughly impressed through the medium of their 
senses. Accustomed, as they had been, to the greatness 
of the material world, they could not at once become 
spiritual in their aspirations.^ He therefore charmed 
them with the fascinating powers of music,'^ and took 
extraordinary pains in the embellishment of the church 
and the altar. Fragrant woods of the forest furnished 
materials, which his own ingenuity carved into seraphs 
and saints. Fields, which had never been broken by the 
plough, surrendered to his pious exertions wild flowers 
and evergreens. Sweet-smelling gums exuded from 
trees, " which spread an odor equally agreeable with 
that of incense."^ Simple Art and more simple Nature 
combined to decorate the log-built temple ; and the rays 
of the morning sun, pouring through the window of the 
little chancel, both gilded and sanctified the holy work. 
The Indians felt that the place was sacred ; that the 
Great Spirit, though everywhere present in his creations, 

1 The Puritan made no allow- the intractable savages who inhabited 
ance for the simplicity of a nature that country, without any weapon 
that had been removed forages from but a lute, and, when he began to 
the influences of civilization. He chant In 'voi credo o Dio mio, men 
steeped the Indian at once in meta- and women gathered around him in 
physics, and was astonished to find silence. 

that, in this dyeing process, the leo- ^ Letter o^ Father Marest to 

pard did not change his spots. Father Germon, m Kip's Jesuit Mis- 

2 De Maistre alludes to a singular sions. The Indians of Virginia had 
instance of the cflect of music upon a singular custom of burning tobacco 
the savage, mentioned by Father in their sacred fires, which they sup- 
Salvaterra, who has been called the posed acceptable to their deity, 
apostle of California. He visited Stith. 



III. 



IN ITS MISSIONARY ASPECT. 257 

was peculiarly present here, Invisible and Holy ; and part 
that the cross, which was the seal of baptism and the 
sign of devotion, which was symbolized in every moment 
of danger or deliverance, on lying down and on rising 
up, which sparkled in every constellation of the heavens, 
was indeed a holy emblem, significant of the Great Sacri- 
fice, made far away in that eastern land, from which they 
derived light both for body and soul. In this way, the 
Jesuits " succeeded in teaching European virtues, and not 
teaching European vices." ^ 

The earliest bulls of the popes, in reference to the New 
World, speak chiefly of the importance of converting the 
barbarous nations residing therein. With some excep- 
tions, the Church of Rome has, on the whole, won for 
itself a new name in the New Hemisphere. Her enemies 
have admitted the singular success of her priesthood, in 
bringing over to the Christian Faith the mysterious abori- 
gines of America. Wherever she has planted her foot, 
she has first planted the cross. While Protestants have 
eagerly sought for good trading-posts, she has more 
wisely looked for the best sites for churches. Surely, 
with her mighty accumulation of relics and superstitions, 
the dusty shreds of a dozen centuries, with her aggressions 
and usurpations, her maxims and her infallibilities, she has 
yet found a short and simple road to the heathen heart.^ 

1 British Review, October, 1844. of an Indian chief, "she might have 

Every reflecting Protestant will ad- been of their faith." Mather. Bishop 

mit, continues the writer, that Pop- Berkeley,speaking in this connection, 

ery and priestcraft are elements of says: " Our reformed planters might 

less immediate destructiveness than learn from the Church of Rome, 

grooved ritles and gin ; and that the with respect to the natives and their 

Jesuits may be excused for introduc- slaves, how it is their interest and 

ing Romanism, where no other Eu- duty to behave. Both the French 

ropean had introduced any thing but and Spaniards take care to instruct 

the smallpox. both natives and negroes in the Pop- 

- "Had the English been as care- ish religion, to the reproach of those 

ful to instruct her in their religion who profess a better." Wilberforce 

as the French were," said the wife Amer. Church. 
22* 



258 THE PURITAN CHURCH. 

CHAP. Let all honor, then, be paid to the memory of the Jesuit 
^.—v^ missionaries in America. By their devotion, their suffer- 
ings, their Christian martyrdoms, they have done much 
to cleanse the escutcheon of their order from the many 
stains which disfigure it. They have set a noble example 
to their fellow-laborers in God's vineyard. They have 
illustrated, by their lives, the force of that thrilling com- 
mand, " Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel 
to every creature ; " and the promise, which accompa- 
nied the command, was faithfully kept in every instance. 
Though " most of them were martyrs to their faith," ^ 
God was with them in all their sufferings and trials, and 
their deaths were scenes of peaceful triumph. But the 
monuments of their labors are fast passing away. Where 
are the Hurons, the Mohawks, and the Abenakis ^ 
Where are the mighty war-chiefs of the Five Nations ? 
The sun shines upon their graves ; their tomahawks are 
forever buried ; the fire of their calumets forever extin- 
guished. The wild forests of America no longer resound 
with hynms to the Virgin, chanted in languages unknown 
to civilization. The little bell of the chapel no more 
rings matins and even-song by the shore of the inland 
lake. They have all fled, and with them has fled away 
the glory of the Jesuit missions.^ But, wherever history 
is read, the names of Brebeuf and Jogues, Raymbault, 
Rasles, Marquette, Joliet, and Lallemand, shall be men- 

1 Kip's Jesuit Missions. '■'■ Ibo et came from these Indians, who had 
non reciibo^'' was the farewell of the learned it of their masters forty 
heart, if not always uttered in words, years before, although, from that 
when these pious men departed on time, they had enjoyed no kind of 
their distant expeditions. instruction. This curious fact is 

2 There has been found lately, on given in the Mercure de France^ 
an island in the Penobscot, a colony i8o6, and is mentioned in Dc 
of savages, who still chant a great Maistre's Essay on the Generative 
number of pious and instructive can- Principles of Human Government, 
tides, in Indian, to the music of the translated in 1847, by a gentleman 
church. One of the most beautiful of Boston. 

airs in use in the church in Boston 



IN ITS MISSIONARY ASPECT. 259 

tioned with honor ; and, wherever the Cathohc faith is 
promulgated, these heroes shall have what they never 
sought, an earthly immortality. 

I cannot forbear inserting here, slightly altered, a 
beautiful tribute to these missionaries, from a noble 
countryman of their own.^ " These pacific conquerors, 
whom antiquity would have deified, have alone done 
what the civil power had not even dared to imagine. 
They alone have traversed the vast continent of America, 
in order to create there men." " They have preached in 
islands that none but Anson's crew ever heard of, and 
taught in tongues that no philosopher can understand."^ 
" But the spirit of the eighteenth century, and another 
spirit, its accomplice, have possessed the power of stifling, 
in part, the voice of justice, and even that of admiration. 
At some future day, perhaps, in the heart of an opulent 
city, founded on some old savannah, the father of these 
missionaries will have a statue. One may read on the 
pedestal : — 

TO THE CHRISTIAN OSIRIS. 

Whose Envoys have traversed the Earth, 

To pluck Men from Misery, 

From Brutishness, and Ferocity ; 

By teaching them Agriculture, 

By giving them Laws, 

By imparting to them the Knowledge and Service of God ; 

Thus taming the Hapless Savage, 

Not by Force of Arms, 

Of which they never had Need, 

But by Mild Persuasion, and Moral Songs, 

And the Power of Hymns, 

Insomuch that they were thought to be 

Angels." 

1 De Maistre. 2 British Review, Oct. 1844. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE ELDERS CONSPIRE AGAINST THE CROWN. 



Part I. 

The Elders and Magistrates feel the Insecurity of Puritanism in Massachu- 
setts, in consequence of its Illegality — I'Vceman's Oath — The Cross of 
St. George removed from the E^nglish Flag — The Civil Wars — The 
Long Parliament encourages the Trade of Massachusetts, and enlists the 
Puritan State in its Cause — Massachusetts openly renounces her Alle- 
giance to King Charles — Acknowledges that she is represented in Par- 
liament by the Knights and Burgesses of the Manor of East Greenwich 

— Makes it a Capital Offence to side with Charles, and sends Soldiers 
to join the English Rebels — Confederates with the other New England 
Colonies — Objects sought by this Union — Frustrated by Parliament — 
Parliament asserts Authority over the Colonies, by attacking their Trade 

— Massachusetts ordered to surrender her Charter — Petitions Parlia- 
ment and Cromwell — Considers herself an Ally of Cromwell only — 
Effect of Cromwell's Death — Massachusetts refuses to acknowledge 
Charles II. — Reaction in the Colony — The Elders and Magistrates 
dissatisfied with the Answer of the King. 

We are now prepared to grapple witii facts which will 
uncover the policy of our ancestors and show where that 
bold and restless spirit resided which aimed at nothing- 
short of independence. For the peo})le of the Puritan 
State are not in the first instance chargeable with the sin 
of conspiracy ; and it was not until treason became the 
familiar language of the pulpit, that they learned to pro- 
nounce anathemas against their lawful soveriiign. 



THE ELDERS CONSPIRE AGAINST THE CROWN. ^261 

I have already had occasion, in a former chapter, to i'ART 
consider the opposition offered by the eklers and maois- ■ — ^^ — ' 

: . . , . r~i • 'l The elders 

trates to the visitation of their franchise. Conscious that and magis- 

trates feel 

the estabhshment of Puritanism in Massachusetts was the inse- 

. . ,, curitjr of 

unlawful from the beg-innine:, and that " the surreptitious runtan- 

" ^ ' isin in Mas- 

manner in which the charter had been transferred would sachusetts, 

in conse- 

not bear the examination of the laws, they resisted, and, 'Uie'ice of 

' '^ Its illegal- 

for the time, successfully, the royal demand, that the i'y- 
franchise should undergo the scrutiny of the king's 
bench. And this was the underpinning of the Puritan 
State. It had no better security than the rottenness of 
its foundation. 

It has been shown that the charter provided for the 
due administration of the oaths of supremacy and alle- 
giance "to all and every person and persons," who should 
at any time leave England, under the auspices of the 
company, to inhabit their plantations.^ In accordance 
with this provision, the first oaths of the company were 
framed, when to be one of its freemen meant simply to 
be a partaker of its legitimate franchise.^ It w^ould have 
been a dangerous proceeding to have discussed the forma- 
tion of a separate allegiance while in England ; and, 
indeed, until the transfer took place, there was no neces- 
sity for such a measure. The company then stood in no 
antagonism to the king. It had nothing to fear from his 

1 The oath of allegiance had they were denied the privileges of 
been administered upwards of five freemen by the general court, is 
hundred years ; the oath of suprem- the following remarkable language : 
acy was principally intended as a " We therefore desire that civil lib- 
renunciation of the authority of the erty and freedom be forthwith granted 
pope. See Blackstone Com. vol. i. to all truly English, without impos- 
p. 368. ing upon them any oaths or cove- 

2 Not only does the preamble of nants, which cannot be warranted by 
the freeman's oath, framed after the the letters-patent, and seem not to 
transfer, admit the existence of concur with the oath of allegiance 
another oath, which had been used formerly enforced on all." New 
in England, but in the remonstrance England's Jonas. 

of Maverick, Child, et a/., because 



«262 THE ELDERS CONSPIRE 



CHAP, justice, or to protect from his claims. The use of the 
,,-^w nrivilco^es lie granted had reference entirely to the pecu- 
niary prosperity of the corporators, a few among whom 
cherished a sincere desire to benefit the Indians. It 
was their interest, as well as their duty, to continue obe- 
dient subjects. But when the principles of Puritanism 
were infused into the company, and the charter was 
transferred, the case was entirely altered. The corpo- 
rators had now both a civil and religious system to pro- 
tect from the vengeance of the law. Had these polities 
been really conferred by patent, they would have had no 
fears for their safety. It was the usurpation that created 
the doubt. ^ 
Freeman s And now the alarm of insecurity had hardly been 
given, when measures were adopted for " consolidating 
their institutions," and making resistance.^ It was one 
1634. year after the arrival of Cotton from England, and the 
same year in which was issued the royal commission to 
the Archbishop of Canterbury and others, for regulating 
the plantations, that a new freeman's oath was framed, 
suited to the novel position of the infant state. The one 
formerly in use was wholly inadequate to and insufficient 
for their new relations to each other and to the king.^ 
AUesfiance to their own commonwealth was to be the 
great princij)le lisped by childhood and whispered by old 
age. Accordingly, " it was ordered that the former oath 
of freemen should be revoked," and that those who had 



1 It should be remembered, that freeman was obliged to pledge his 
the word freeman, so often used in allegiance, not to King Charles, but 
the charter, is a legal and not a to Massachusetts. 

political term. To be free of a 3 See this oath in N. E. Hist, 

company, means simply to be enti- Gen. Reg. vol. iii. p. 89. The sim- 

tlcd to its corporate privileges. pie terms in which it is couched are 

2 Bancroft. It was in this view, in strong contrast with the forcible 
says this writer, that the freeman's terms of the one which super- 



oath was appointed, by which every seded it. 



AGAINST THE CROWN. 263 

taken it should stand no further bound thereby, than was part 
consistent with the one substituted in its stead. ^ This ■ — ^-^ 
preamble was a significant introduction to the oath. " I 
do swear, by the great and dreadful name of the living 
God, that I will be faithful and true to this common- 
wealth, that I will endeavor to maintain and preserve all 
its liberties and its privileges, that I will not plot or prac- 
tise evil against it, nor consent that others shall do so ; 
and, moreover, I do bind myself in the sight of God, 
that when I shall be called to give my voice touching 
any matter, I will give my vote as I shall judge in mine 
own conscience will best conduce to the public weal of 
the body, without respect of persons, or favor of any 
man. So help me God in the Lord Jesus Christ." 
Such was the oath, the first fruits of the printing-press 
in New England, which, supported by the covenant, 
enabled the colony to strive successfully against the 
mother country for half a century. Under its operation 
the government was all powerful, and the weaker party, 
however oppressed, dared not threaten an appeal to the 
king, since such an act was construed into perjury and 
high treason.^ Writs and legal processes were issued, 
not in the king's name, but in the name of the common- 
wealth ; and every monument was removed which could 
remind the freeman that he was not the citizen of a 



1 Col. Laws, Appendix, p. 712. said that the government " was not 

2 Bancroft. In 1645, a Mr. Hub- more than a corporation in Eng- 
bard, of Hingham, an elder who land," and that the magistrates had 
was "reported to be of a Presbyte- no power to put men to death by 
rial spirit," and, consequently, "was virtue of the patent, nor " to do other 
not approved of by the elders," was things that they did." For this speech 
fined one hundred pounds, for peti- he was tried, and the jury found that, 
tioning the general court. When having taken the oath of fidelity, he 
the marshal was sent to collect the was guilty of contempt and sedition, 
fine, Hubbard pronounced his war- &;c. New England's Jonas. Win- 
rant insufficient, because it was not throp. Hubbard. 

issued in his Majesty's name ; and he 



264> 



THE ELDERS CONSPIRE 



CHAP. 
IV. 



The cross 
of St. 
George 
removed 
by tlie el- 
ders from 
the English 



October. 



November 



sovereign state, but only a member of an English cor- 
poration. 

Not the least remarkable of these significant acts was 
the alteration of the English ensign. While the elders 
and magistrates were " sternly preparing " to resist the 
royal authority, by moulding the transferred corporation 
into a complete and organized state, Roger Williams 
was preaching at Salem that the cross in the king's 
colors ought to be taken away, " as a relic of Antichris- 
tian superstition." The misguided zeal of Williams, 
who was actuated by fanaticism alone, had its effect, at 
last, on Endecott, the former governor of the plantation, 
who, with his own hands, tore the offensive symbol from 
the national ensign.^ At this period, when complaints 
were so bitter against the colony, and fears M^ere enter- 
tained that a general governor would be sent over, the 
publicity of the act was considered highly impolitic. 
The elders and magistrates felt much uneasiness, since 
they feared it would strengthen those proofs of their dis- 
loyalty, which were already before the privy council, and 
thus be productive of serious consequences.^ To prevent 
this catastrophe, active measures were taken. They 
innnediately wrote to the agent of the colony in Eng- 
land, disavowing the act, "yet with as nmch wariness as 
they might, being doubtful of the lawful use of the 
cross. " The nature of Endecott's offence, which came 
up before the court of assistants, was deferred until the 



1 Sav. Winthrop. Hubbard. Gra- 
hame, in relating this fact, calls the 
cross a crucifix. If their colors had 
borne a crucifix, no doubt Endecott's 
act would have been excusable, even 
in I ambcth Palace. 

2 Hubbard slurs over this singular 
business in an equally singular man- 
ner : scarcely devoting to the narra- 



tive a quarter of the room bestowed 
by his prototype, Winthrop, and leav- 
ing out the most important tacts. 
Hubbard, however, was laboring in 
his work, under the unpleasant task 
of endeavoring to reconcile the prac- 
tices of the Puritans with the princi- 
ples of loyalty. 



AGAINST THE CROWN. 265 

meeting of the next general court, and, in the mean part 
time, a convocation of the elders was assembled, to an- > — r — 
swer these two questions, viz : whether, in case a gen- jj^nuaiy. 
eral governor should be sent over, they ought to receive 
him ; and whether it was lawful to carry the cross in 
the banners of the commonwealth. To the former of these 
questions the elders returned a negative answer ; saying 
it was the duty of the colonists to defend their lawful 
possessions if they were able, " otherwise to avoid or 
protract ; " but, '• for the matter of the cross, they were 
divided." These opinions led the magistrates and depu- 
ties " to hasten their fortifications," and, at the next 
court, Endecott was called up to answer for his offence. March. 
A majority, however, could not be obtained to condemn 
the act, and the cause was a second time deferred ; it 
being- ordered, in the mean time, that " all the ensigns 
should be laid aside." ^ 

When the court again met, Endecott's case came up May. 
for the last time, " and a committee was chosen, to con- 
sider of the offence, and the censure due to it." After a 
short conference, they reported that he had been guilty of 
rash and imprudent conduct, in not asking the advice of 
the court ; that he had been guilty of uncharitableness, 
in that, judging the cross to be a sin, he had confined his 
exertions for its removal to the town of Salem, and had 
not endeavored to provide for the purification of the other 
towns in the commonwealth ; that he had laid a blemish 
upon his fellow-magistrates, " as if they would suffer 
idolatry ; " and that, by his impolitic zeal, he had given 
the king occasion to question the loyalty of the colony. 

1 Mr. Hooker was one of the tract on the subject, which contained 

elders who defended the use of the " a temperate censure of Endecott." 

cross in the ensign, and wrote a Sav. Winthrop. 
23 



266 THE ELDERS CONSPIRE 

CHAP. Thoy therefore adjudg-ed him worthy of admonition, and 
^ — -.-^ sentenced liiin to be disabled from liolding office for the 
term of one year.^ 

But the mutilation of the royal ensign started an 
important question, which could not be disposed of as 
easily as Mr. Endecott. What was to be done with the 
cross in the colors of the commonwealth ^ The magis- 
trates were willing to strike it from the flag, though 
anxious that it should be done in such a manner as not 
to attract the notice of the cro\^•n. But the measure was 
obnoxious to many of the people who had not yet lost 
their feelings of loyalty, and with \A'liom the banner con- 
secrated the cross, if not the cross the banner. The 
point was much debated by the members of the court, 
and it was even proposed to adopt the red and white 
roses, which, in former times, had distinguished the rival 
houses of York and Lancaster. It was a hazardous 
step ; but the adoption of the emblems of the Plantage- 
nets would at least serve, in some degree, to remove the 
suspicions, which the alteration of the national ensign 
was calculated to rouse. Until the elders, however, liad 
agreed among themselves, nothing could be determined ; 
and, as they had promised to write to their friends in 
England and obtain their advice, the court for the time 
adjourned the decision of the question, it being first incul- 
cated upon every member " to deal with his neighbors, 
and to still their minds who stood so stiff" for the cross." ^ 
The answers received by the elders seem to have been 
favorable to their wishes ; and when the court met, a 
few months after, it was ordered that all the military 
companies should discard the cross, and that " the king's 

1 Sav. Winthrop. 2 Ibid. 



AGAINST THE CROWN. 267 

arms," as a badge that this was private property of the part 
crown, should be placed, instead of the national colors, in ^^-v — - 
Castle Island.^ 

Massachusetts was making rapid strides towards inde- The civil 

. wars. 

pendence. While the king- was vanily endeavormg to 
bring the charter that had been perverted before a legal 
tribunal, her agents were evading the royal demands, and 
her elders were promoting popular disloyalty. With her 
freeman's oath, her separate colors, her republican pulpits, 
her tyrannical oligarchy, and her bigoted people, she 
employed a series of bold and unequivocal stratagems, 
which showed that she considered herself bound to the 
mother country by the loosest ties. In the foreign rela- 
tions of their conmionwealth, niagistrates and freemen 
alike took their cue from the elders. The former were 
bound to them by a community of interests, and the 
latter by the powerful operation of the covenant. All 
orders in the state respected them, as their wisest coun- 
sellors and ablest men ; and the goodman who trem- 
bled in his very slumbers, under the drowsy influence of 
a " painful preacher," deferred with a like submission to 
his godly monitions in questions of law and politics ; and 
the elders, ever active and zealous, successfully bearded 
their sovereigns, and bore the rising commonwealth on 
their stalwart shoulders, over tribes of slaughtered men, 
through the entanglements of political intrigue, in courts, 
in camps, and in the wilderness, crushing alike reptile 



1 Savage says that he has never to fire upon him, he " hung out the 

met with the answers returned, and English colors, which they perceiv- 

we can only judge what they were ing shot the more violently, shooting 

by the final action on the question, the colors many times through and 

An amusing instance of the manner through." Simplicitle's Defence, 

in which the soldiers soon learned to " They disliked the cross in the 

regard the royal ensign occurred in banner as much as the people of 

the case of Samuel Gorton, see ante, Paris the lilies of the Bourbons, and 

p. 199. When the soldiers began for similar reasons." Bancroft. 



26S THE ELDERS CONSPIRE 

CHAP, and flower, until the last of that famous band of pilg^rims 
' — y — ' had sunk into the grave. 

1640. Tlie Long Parliament commenced its session, an event 
which was as auspicious to New England as it was omin- 
ous to the king. No sooner were these tidings known 
in Massachusetts, than the general court, " expecting 

1641. great revolutions," despatched two elders and a deputy to 
"*^ ■ England.^ It would naturally be supposed that they 

who had, but three years before, concluded a petition to 
the lords commissioners with their " earnest prayers to 
the King of kings for the long life and prosperity of 
his sacred majesty and his royal family," ^ would be, in 
the adversity of their sovereign, anxious to assure him 
of their undoubted attachment and loyalty ; and now, 
that the throne Mas in danger, would rally around it 
with such influence and ability as they possessed. Not 
so the fact. The instructions given to the agents were 
to negotiate for the interests of tlie colony, and " to 
further the work of reformation there which was now 
like to be attempted." But they were enjoined not to 
put the colony under the protection of parliament, since 
such a movement would make Massachusetts subject to 
its laws, which "might prove very prejudicial."^ At the 
same time a law was passed, ordering that no person 
should take any oath of " a public and civil nature," but 



1 Hutchinson. Sav. Winthrop. written in 1779, wherein the go\- 
The notorious Hugh Peters was ernor quotes this fact as a triumph- 
one of these agents, and the others ant proof that the colony denied the 
were Thomas Weld and William right of parliament to legislate for 
Hibliins. her beneht. '1 his bold assertion of 

~ Hutchinson, vol. i. Appendix, the worthy governor, ht>wever, is 

p. 444. founded in ignorance ; and the con- 

3 Savage takes pains to give a text shows that Massachusetts thus 

note on this passage in Winthrop's instructed her agents, because she 

Journal, in which he mentions a " expected great revolutions," and 

letter of the late Governor 'Irum- because parliament is no parliament 

bull to Baron van der Capellan, without the king be irresponsible. 



AGAINST THE CROWN. 269 

such as was prescribed by the general court.^ Such was part 
the sahitation received by the unfortunate Charles from ' — v — ' 
his "loving subjects" in New England. They had not a 
word of encouragement, not an expression of sympathy. 
They assured him, in the day of his strength and pride, 
that they were a people worthy of his favor and pro- 
tection.^ Was Charles wrong when he doubted their 
professions ? 

It will be remembered that the charter of the com- The Long 
panv, for the special encouragement oi its trade, remitted encourages 

11 1 I- 1 1 • r u thetradeof 

all taxes upon the property oi the plantation tor the Massacim- 

t. 11 -111 s^"^' ^^^ 

space of seven years, and also remitted all customs and enlists the 

1 • 1 • 1 • 1 r Puritan 

duties upon their exports and imports, to and from any state in 

. 1 r« 1 r ^'^^ cause. 

port of the British Channel, for tlie space of twenty-one 
years, excepting the five per cent, due upon their goods 
and merchandise, according to the ancient trade of mer- 
chants. The agents of Massachusetts were so successful 
in their mission, that they obtained an ordinance of par- 1642 
liament congratulating the colony that it was " likely to 
prove very happy for propagating the gospel " in the 
New World,^ and discharging the goods that should be 
exported from England to the colony, to be there used, 
or the natural products of the colony that should be 
imported thence into England, from paying any custom, 
subsidy, or taxation whatever, either inward or out- 
ward.^ 

In return for these favors, Massachusetts boldly threw 



1 Colony Laws. 3 Not a missionary had yet opened 

2 Humble Petition to the Right his lips. 

Honorable the Lords Commissioners * Such was the commercial aspect 

for Foreign Plantations. Hutchin- Massachusetts was already assuming, 

son, vol. i. Appendix, p. 442. The that in 1641, while her agents were 

New England Colonies enjoy the in England, the general court passed 

unenviable distinction of having been laws for the encouragement of ship 

the only settlements in America who building. Colony Laws, 
deserted their sovereign. 

23* 



March. 



>->70 THE ELDERS CONSPIRE 

CHAP, off all disguise, and ardently embraced the parliamentary 
' — Y — ' cause. The elders and magistrates, in pulpit and forum, 
sctts'open- disseminated the seeds of rebellion. The oaths of office 
ceshcrai- formerly administered to the governor and magistrates 
to^King were altered ; and, because " he had violated the privileges 
of parliament, made war upon the legislature, and thereby 
lost a good part of his kingdom and many of his sub- 
jects," it was thought best to omit that they should swear 
to bear true faith and allegiance to their sovereign.^ In 
Old England, their agents were active in forwarding the 
rebellion, by " stirring up the war and driving it on ; " 
and a committee, in behalf of Massachusetts, sat every 
Saturday at Cooper's Hall, for promoting this diabolical 
treason.^ 
Mfissachu- One little episode alone interrupted the pleasing har- 
knowledges mony now established between the parliament and Mas- 
knights sachusetts, which exhibited plainly the swelling hopes of 
gesscsof the latter. A colonial commission, established in 1643, 

the manor 

of East With powers or a most arbitrary and treasonable nature, 

Greenwich i • i i v ' 

dorepre- was authorized, under a |)arliamentary ordinance, to seize 

sent her in . • t> • i t> 

pariiamcnt. all vcsscls bouud to or troiii the ports ot Uristol, Barn- 
stable, or Dartmouth, in any port or creek, which were 
supposed to be hostile to the parliamentary cause. In 
1644. the year following, an armed ship from London arrived 
at Boston, and, finding in her harbor a Bristol ship, 
bound for Bilboa, seized upon her as lawful caj)ture and 
prize. The seizure of this property, which belonged to 
persons of the king's party, created a tumult among the 
" bold malignants," who were, in consequence, confined, 
by orders of the governor. But it was deemed necessary 
that the j)oint should be settled, whether such an act was 
not an infringement of the patent, and, therefore, illegal. 



1 Sav. Winthrop. ^ Chalmers's Annals, p. 172. 



AGAINST THE CROWN. QJl 

This question \yas brought before an assembly of elders pakt 
and magistrates, then sitting at Salem ; and the major- > — r--^ 
ity^ of both orders declared that the government ought 
not to interfere, for the following reasons, viz : because 
this act could be no precedent for any real aggressions 
upon their liberty by any " foreign power," since parlia- 
ment had taught them that salus poj)uU is svprema lex ; 
because if they should, by their interference, offend par- 
liament, they would become a prey to all men, since they 
had forsaken the king ; because they could not legally 
deny the power of parliament in this case, since in 
all privileged places, where the king's writs had no 
force,^ parliament might exercise its authority by its 
right of representation, and as they lield their lands as 
of the manor of East Greenwich, the knights and bur- 
gesses for that manor did represent her in parliament ; ^ 
because, if parliament should thereafter be of a "malig- 
nant spirit," they could make use of the " salus impuli " 
to withstand its authority ; because, if they should now 
oppose the authority of parliament they would set a bad 
example to the Virginian and West Indian Colonies, con- 
firm them in their rebellious course, and so grieve their 
godly friends in England ; and, finally, because if anv 
of the Puritans suffered by the seizure, it could not be 
doubted but that parliament would redress their losses.* 
In this ingenious manner Massachusetts preserved the 

1 A majority only, however. Some ment by Massachusetts that she was 

of the elders, less cautious than the represented in parliament, which is 

rest, "exhorted the magistrates" a sufficient answer to the letter of 

from their pulpits " to maintain the Trumbull, before mentioned. Is it 

people's liberties, which were, they ignorance of this fact that has pre- 

said, violated by this act." Sav. vented the writers of American his- 

Winthrop. tory from mentioning it ? The pro- 

- Such as the Counties Palatine, found silence of that prolific anno- 

the Cinque Ports, the royal fran- tator. Savage, on this fact, in Win- 

chise of Ely, etc., etc. See Black, throp's Journal, is significant. 
Com. vol. iii. p. 78. ^ See Sav. Winthrop, vol. ii. p. 

3 Here is an express acknowledg- 182. 



;272 THE ELDERS CONSPIRE 

CHAP, protection of parliament, without sacrificing her own 

' — * — ' independence. She held herself ready, at a moment's 

a capital Warning, on the plea of '■'- salus populi^' to throw off 

to side her dependence on the legislature, as she had renounced 

ciiaries, ° her allegiance to the king. Nor was this mere empty 

and sends . ^ ,_, . ^ 

her soldiers hravado. " 1 lie country w\is put in a posture oi war, to 
English be ready on all occasions." Orders had already been 
issued by the general court for the manufacture of gun- 
1642. powder ; and their fortifications in the harbor were 
brought, at an expense of several thousand pounds, to 
such a state of perfection, that no ships could approach 
Boston without " their good leave and liking." The 
greatest activity prevailed through the military depart- 
ment of the government ; and, lest any " insolent persons 
should offer injury to the poor pilgrim people, certain 
signals of alarums " were established, which could " sud- 
denly spread through the whole country." ^ The king's 
cause was, indeed, marked. To express sympathy for 
Charles was regarded as an insult to the commonwealth ; 
to question the lawfulness of the parliamentary proceedings 
was considered a high misdemeanor. In one case, where 
the captain of a military company had doubted the propri- 
ety of the war, which parliament was waging against the 
king, he was only pardoned because " he had been a 
useful man," ^ and declared, upon his examination, that 
" those of the parliament side were the more godly and 
honest part of the kingdom ; " and that if the king, or 
any party from him, should attempt any thing against 
Massachusetts, he should make no scruple of spending 
life and estate in her defence.^ Still, as the royal cause 
grew more desperate at home, there were some '• malig- 

1 Johnson. Prince. Winthrop. 3 Sav. Winthrop. 

2 Knsign Jennison, of Pequod 
memory. 



1G45. 



AGAINST THE CROWN. 2JS 

nant spirits who beg-an to stir," and to avow their sym- part 
pathy for the tottering throne. Tliis manifestation of 
sorrow, so natural to those who had not entirely sacrificed 
their love of country, was met by the extraordinary law, 
that whoever should, by word, writing, or action, en- Jiarch. 
deavor to disturb the peace of the commonwealth, on 
pretence that they were for the king of England, should 
be accounted offenders of a high nature, and should suffer 
death, or otherwise, according to the degree and nature 
of their offence.^ Nor did the elders and magistrates 
confine the expression of their sentiments to acts of a 
negative nature. They " sent over useful men, to do 
acceptable service," and the ranks of the parliamentary 
army were swelled by the veteran butchers of the Pequod 
war.^ Well might Charles say : — 

" The fiercest furies that do daily tread 
Upon my grief, my gray, discrowned head, 
Are they who owe my bounty for their bread." 3 

Meanwhile, the elders and magistrates, emboldened by Confedc- 
the triumphs of their party at home,^ and by the im- the other 
punity of the measures they had already adopted, led land coio- 
the way in a more ambitious proiect than had yet been tiie exam- 

pie of the 

developed by their policy. In 164*1, there were in New United 

1 With the king's supremacy was this time, restored the cross to her 
abolished his legal rights. Escheats colors, "till the state of England 
went no longer to the crown, but to shall alter the same," which, pro- 
the " public treasury." Col. Laws, ceeds the order, we much desire. 
"So," Johnson expresses it, "some As this order included the Castle, 
of the chief worthies of Christ turned it appears that they had even been 
back to the assistance of parlia- disused there. See Hazard, Hist, 
ment." Coll. vol. i. p. 554. They were re- 

2 Sav. Winthrop. Hutchinson, moved, probably, when Massachu- 
See Hutchinson, vol. i. App. p. 449. setts renounced its allegiance to the 

3 Lines written in Carisbrook king. 

Castle. Out of respect to parlia- '^ Johnson has it : " Taking into 

ment, who used the royal tiag in consideration the contention begun 

their treasonable warfare against in our native country." Book ii. 

their sovereign, Massachusetts, about ch. 23. 



£74* THE ELDERS CONSPIRE 

CHAP. Eng^land tlie follo\vii)g" colonies, viz : Plymouth, settled 
— y — ' by Browiiists, in 1620; Massachusetts, settled by Puri- 
of Holland taus, iu 16!28 ; Providence, settled by the pioneers of 
Spain. religious liberty, at whose head was Roger Williams, in 
1635; New Haven, settled by Puritans from England, 
in 1637; Connecticut, settled by Puritans from Massa- 
chusetts, in 1636, and organized as a separate jurisdiction 
in 164<1 ; Rhode Island, settled by Antinomians from 
Massachusetts, in 1 637 5 Piscataqua, now New Hamp- 
shire, settled by fishermen, under the government and 
patronage of Captain Mason, and several merchants in the 
West of England, and " swallowed up " ^ by Massachu- 
setts, in 164*1. A settlement also existed in Maine; but 
this was established under the auspices of Gorges, and, at 
this time, had nothing- in common with the other colonies 
in New England.^ Of these various colonies, Massachu- 
setts, Plymouth, New Haven, and Connecticut, were alike, 
in manners, religion, and customs, and though Plymouth 
was the oldest settlement, Massachusetts was by far the 
most powerful. She alone had a charter, while the rest 
were merely voluntary municipal associations ; she alone 
claimed to be " a state and government," of authority to 
commission the magistrates of other colonies, and of 
power to make her decrees respected.^ As for Prov- 
idence and Rhode Island, they were heartily despised by 
their sister colonies, and, in general, returned this con- 

1 This happy expres.Mon is in the there, and encouraged the inhab- 

Index to the hrst volume of Hutch- itants to submit to their jurisdic- 

inson. tion." Hutchinson, vol. i. p. 163. 

'- It was united to Massachusetts ^ In 1635, the general court com- 

in 1652, and was erected into the missioned several persons " to gov- 

county of Yorkshire. At this time, em the people of Connecticut," 

the royalists had nothing to hope before John Winthrop, Jr., had ar- 

from their bitter enemies ; and, dur- rived from England. In this pro- 

iiig the absence of Gorges, " Massa- ceeding, the court style their colony 

chusctts, who claimed the Province a state and government. See Haz- 

of Maine, as within her charter, ard, vol. i. p. 321. 
took advantage of the confusions 



AGAINST THE CROWN. ^5 

tempt by open defiance. Settled by tbe victims of 
Puritan tyranny, of every hue and shade, their motley 
inhabitants at least had this in common, that they ab- 
horred the principles of their persecutors. Within their 
borders, the eccentric, the crazy, the fanatic, the outcast, 
and the heathen, found a sure refuge. And, as they 
differed from their neighbors in religion, so also did they 
in their laws. For while they claimed, against every 
power, civil and ecclesiastical, the right to think for 
themselves on those points which alone concerned them- 
selves, and expressly agreed " to hold forth liberty of 
conscience " in the midst of dissension and strife,^ yet, in 
general, they submitted to the laws and authority of the 
mother country, setting up no establishments of their own 
against her supreme power.^ 

A residence in Holland, with the Brownists, rendered 
the political union of states, on an offensive and defensive 
basis, a familiar principle to the minds of many of the 
leading Pilgrim Puritans. Since the year 1637, antici- 
pated difficulties with the Dutch, their near neighbors, 
had made the people of Connecticut anxious for a con- 
federacy like that which had annihilated Spanish rule in 
the lordships of the Netherlands. The feasibility of such 
an union of the Puritan States in New England ^^'as dis- 
cussed for some years, and, at length, articles of alliance, 1643. 
offensive and defensive, were agreed upon by commis- 
sioners assembled at Boston, and ratified by Massachu- Way. 
setts, New Haven, Connecticut, and Plymouth, in the September. 
course of the same year. From the proposed benefits of 
this confederacy. Providence and Rhode Island were jeal- 
ously excluded ; and though all the savage hordes of the 
wilderness should enter Narragansett Bay in their canoe 

1 Hazard, vol. i. p. 465. 2 See Hubbard, p. 336. 



276 THE ELDERS CONSPIRE 

fleets of war, tlioiigli tlie air of those feeble settlements 
should hiss with the flight of tomahawks and fire-arrows, 
not a musket or praying Indian from the confederacy 
were they to expect, to help them fight their battles.^ 

The articles of confederation, which were based upon 
" the dangers to which the colonies of New England were 
exposed from domestic and foreign foes," 2 were twelve in 
number, and were agreed upon both for " preserving and 
propagating- the truth and liberties of the gospel," and 
for their mutual safety and welfare. They provided that 
no other jurisdiction should ever be taken in as a distinct 
head or member of the confederacy, and that, according 
to the proportionate charges of each colony in any wars, 
" offensive or defensive," the whole advantage of such 
wars, if God should bless their endeavors, whether in 
lands, goods, or persons, should be divided among the 
United Colonies.^ They further provided for the innne- 
diate assistance of the rest, when either colony was 
invaded by " any enemy whatever," and this, too, " with- 
out meeting or expostulation ; " and that, upon any dan- 
ger of invasion, a meeting of the connnissioners might 
be sunnnoned by any three magistrates of such plantation 
so in danger, to take measures to provide against it. 
The business of the confederacy was to be transacted by 
eight commissioners, two from each jurisdiction ; and a 
congress was to meet alternately in the colonies once a 
year, for the transaction of the public affairs. But it 
was expressly provided, that the commissioners should 
be in " church fellowship ' with the freemen of Massa- 
chusetts.* 

1 See Hazard, vol. ii. p. 100. an absorption of the whole territory 

'- Hutchinson. Hazard. of New England. 

3 This provision for offensive '' Neal. Hutchinson. Mather. 

wars, and a division of lands and Winthrop. The relative strength 

persons, must have had reference to of the colonies, at this time, can 



AGAINST THE CROWN. ^77 

These were the chief provisions of this important part 
federation. It is unquestionably the most prominent " — -r-^ 
event in the history of Massachusetts (luring the opera- sought 
tion of the first charter. The confederation was not for union. 
a temporary purpose, but for themselves and " their pos- 
terities." The interests and destinies of a country, com- 
prehending- the whole of New England, with its various 
tribes and nations, were intrusted to a handful of Puri- 
tan magistrates ; and the inference is irresistible, that 
some object was concealed in its equivocal language, more 
important than protection against a few tribes of helpless 
Indians, whom a dozen muskets in the hands of her 
militia would always readily disperse.^ What, now, was 
the state of parties in England ^ Were not the king 
and the parliament both asserting the superiority of 
important principles, — the one endeavoring to preserve 
the integrity of the crown and the Catholicity of the 
Church, that sacred heritage bequeathed by the Tudors 
to the Stuarts, stripped of foreign usurpations ; the other 
striving to prostrate the former, and to change the latter 
into the " beauteous system of Geneva ? " What chance 
was there that, in this momentous struggle, two or three 
insignificant colonies in .inother hemisphere should be 
watched and interfered with] Was not Laud in the 
Tower ? Was not Strafford sacrificed ? Was not the 
privy council scattered 1 Was not the Church, held only 
in the unseen hand of God, tottering to its foundations ^ 



be ascertained from the fact, that, which makes them usually term 
by the agreement, Massachusetts themselves a state, call the people 
was to furnish one hundred men, there, subjects, unite four govern- 
and each of the other colonies ments together, without any author- 
forty-five men, in case of invasion, ity from the king and parliament, 
If a greater number were necessary, and then term themselves the United 
the commissioners were to meet. Colonies," etc. See New England's 

1 " High conceits of a nation Jonas Cast Up, etc., p. 21. 
breeds high thoughts of themselves, 
24 



278 THE ELDERS CONSPIRE 

Were not the cannon of Essex menacing, with their 
deep-toned voices, the very gates of Oxford itself^ 
Surely, the roar of battles, the fervent prayers of God's 
saints, and the loud oaths of " the malignants," would 
drown the whispers in which was settled the orderly 
compact of a few quiet Puritans. 

That Massachusetts had, even at this time, definite 
and determined notions of independence, it would be 
rash to assert ; that she had shadowy plans and bright 
hopes of such a future, it would be equally rash to 
deny. Did not the commissioners treat with each other 
as the representatives of independent sovereignties'? Is 
there throughout the articles one allusion, however faint, 
to the subordination of New England to the mother 
country ? Did not the articles provide for the mutual 
defence of the several jurisdictions, not only against 
domestic but foreign enemies ^ ^ Did not Massachusetts, 
little more than a year after the ratification of the arti- 
1644. cles of the confederation, enter into a treaty with the 
lieutenant-general of the French king in Acadia, stipulat- 
October. ing to observe firm peace with the dependencies of Louis 
XIV., and referring the ratification of the treaty, not to 
King Charles, or the parliament, but to the congress of 

1648. the commissioners T ^ Did not the commissioners repeat- 
edly refuse to admit the loyal colony of Rhode Island to 
the confederacy, unless she first submitted to, and became 
incorporated with, the jurisdiction of Plymouth "? Did 

1649. not the separate states of the confederacy levy customs 

1 The meaning of the word " for- ration. So, in the seizure of the 

eign," in this connection, can only Bristol ship, before referred to, the 

be gathered from the res gestte. In elders and magistrates, referring to 

1646, Child and Maverick, petition- parliament, speak of its commis- 

ing the general court, complain that sion, or oiher foreign power, 

the laws of England arc by some 2 See Hazard, vol. i. p. 536, for 

styled foreign, and the state rather this treaty in the original Latin, 
a tree state than a colony or corpo- 



AGAINST THE CROWN. ^79 

and duties upon exports and imports, from and to each 
other, without the shghtest reference to their condition as 
dependencies of a powerful kingdom 1 ^ And, as affairs 
grew darker in England, did not Massachusetts, hegin- 
ning to feel the corrupting influence of trade, by which 
she had become flooded with the bullion of the rovers of 1651. 
the Carribean Sea, with a longer stride than she had 
before taken, make use of that chiefest attribute of sov- 
ereignty, the right of coinage ^ ^ 

These acts, followinof each other in rapid succession, Frustrated 

, by parlia- 

and keeping pace with events in the mother country, meut. 
have a deep significance. But, though all sense of loy- 
alty had long since deserted the elders and magistrates, 
they were not allowed to forget so readily that they owed 
obedience to the parent state. They suffered their king 
to perish, without making a single effort for his deliver- 
ance ; ^ and though, during the last ten years of treason 
and blood, which desecrated the Church and disgraced the 
nation, they had remained unmolested, they were now to 

1 Connecticut, in order to support trade, or impart true dignity to com- 
a fort at the mouth of the river of merce ; and the best comment that 
that name, levied a tax upon all can be made on its character is the 
goods that passed the fort from the fact, that, although large sums were 
interior, on the ground that the fort coined, the very dates of the coinage 
protected the country. Massachu- soon became falsehoods, and that 
setts, denying the right thus to levy now the coins themselves have so 
black mail, at the same time re- far disappeared, that specimens can 
torted by imposing customs on the alone be fgund on the shelves of the 
goods of her sister colonies, carried cabinet, side by side with Jewish 
by her fort in the bay. Hutchinson, shekels and Roman denarii. The 
vol. i. p. 145. Hazard, vol. ii. p. original date of the coin was 1652, 
141. and, as large sums continued to be 

2 Is it not a curious destiny that coined, the same date was used, for 
orders the price of blood ? The the obvious reason, that this act of 
ore, which the aborigines of Mexico sovereignty would not be so readily 
dug from the sides of the Cordille- discovered on its repetition. 

ras, stained by their blood and tears, ^ Even those of the inhabitants 

which was torn from the clutch of who disapproved of the " great 

the dying Spaniard by the bucca- act " of the regicides, regarded it 

neer, was illegally coined into money as the error of noble and generous 

by the pious and thrifty Puritan, minds. Grahame. 
Such a currency could never ennoble 



280 THE ELDERS CONSPIRE 

CHAP, learn that the long arm of imperial power could easily 
' — r^ reach out and stay their progress. For them the morti- 
fication was reserved of seeing those commissioners, who 
had fondly hoped one day to sit in diet like the represen- 
tatives of the United Provinces, dwindle into the factors 
of the Society for Propagating the Gospel.^ 
Parliament A year had elapsed from the death of Charles the 
thority First, and Virginia, true to the principles of the Church, 
colonics, by acknowledged the fugitive prince, his son, as her lawful 

ittfickinji 

their trade, sovereign. Incensed at the stubborn loyalty of this col- 
1G50. ony, parliament issued an ordinance declaring its inhab- 
itants "notorious robbers and traitors," prohibiting any 
connection with them, and forbidding any foreign na- 
tions to trade with any of the English settlements in 
America.^ Massachusetts, hardly yet prepared for what 
was to come, pursued her usual course with quiet uncon- 
cern. What, then, must have been her amazement, 
when, at the very time she was tampering with Maine, 
to procure from the people of Gorges a submission to 
1651. her authority, a summons arrived from the Long Parlia- 
Q^dem ment, ordering her to transmit her charter to England, 
setfs^to sur- to acccpt of a new patent from the Keepers of the 
ciuirtcr!'^'^ National Liberties, and to recognize, in all her acts and 
legal processes, her dependence upon the mother coun- 
try.^ This order, accompanied by a proclamation pro- 
hibiting trade with Virginia, Barbadoes, Bermuda, and 
Antigua, caused the greatest concern, and the alarm 
spread rapidly from the banks of the Merrimac to the 
shores of Long Island Sound. 
jiassachu- Unprepared as Massachusetts was for this blow, she 
tions par- ^^^ "^^ Venture to resist. The general court interdicted 

1 See Hutchinson, vol. i. p. 120, n. ^ Hutchinson, vol. i. Appendix, 

2 ScobclTs Acts, 1650, c. 28. p. 448. 
Grahamc, vol. i. p. 98. 



AGAINST THE CROWN. 281 

the people from commercial intercourse with Virginia ; ^ part 
but, at the same time, they addressed a letter to parlia- ' — r — ' 
ment, setting forth their " carriage and demeanor " to and Crom- 
that honorable body, since the beginning of the late 
troubles with the king ; that they had constantly adhered 
to the parliamentary cause in its gloomiest prospects, 
and had contributed to its success, by furnishing soldiers 
for its army ; that, by their public fastings and thanks- 
givings, according as it was prosperous or otherwise, 
they had declared to the world that they were willing to 
rise or fall with the party they had espoused. For all 
this, proceeds the general court, we have gained the 
hatred of the other English Colonies ; and now, if you 
deceive our hopes, which God forbid, and treat us more 
harshly than did our late sovereign, we shall sit down 
and sigh out our late repentance for coming hither ; for 
we are too old and too weak to seek a new corner of the 
world in which to lay our bones.^ 

On Cromwell, however, the elders and magistrates 
placed their greatest reliance. They could confidently 
appeal to the sympathies of that religious adventurer, 
who, in his adversity, had wished to join their ranks ; ^ 
in his prosperity thought only how to better their condi- 
tion ; and who was soon to hold the commons of Eng- 
land in the hollow of his broad and blood-stained hand. 
To Cromwell, therefore, the governor addressed a hum- 
ble petition, asking his interference with parliament in 
their behalf, and praying that the " Captain of the Host 
of Israel might be with him in all his great enterprises, 



1 Hazard. Hutchinson, vol. i. council, with a superstition that, 

Appendix, p. 44S. sometimes, never leaves bad men, 

- Hutchinson. seized hold of the event as a mani- 

3 Cromwell, whose intention of fest commission from Providence to 

joining the colony of Massachusetts watch over the destinies of that por- 

had been frustrated by an order in tion of his people. 

24* 



2S2 THE ELDERS CONSPIRE 

CHAP, to the glory of God, the subduing of his enemies, and 

^^^-^ his everlasting peace." ^ And to his influence it must be 
ascribed that Massachusetts heard nothing further from 
those parliamentary demagogues, whose treachery and 
tyranny were so conspicuous, that they broke without 
scruple the conditions on which Virginia alone consented 
to acknowledge their authority,^ compelled Maryland to 
recognize the authority of parliament in her official style, 
and suspended the form of government which they, at 
the earnest entreaty of Roger Williams, themselves had 
granted Rhode Island. What will they not do to the 
shrubs, said the half-repentant Fairfax, having cut down 
the cedars ! 

In all this wanton perfidy, Massachusetts remained 
undisturbed. Her charter continued in all its dusty dig- 
nity, among the archives of the colony ; she neglected to 
recognize parliament in her official style ; and the cele- 
brated Navigation Act, which was levelled at the Dutch 

1652. carrying trade,^ and which forbade the productions of 
Asia, Africa, or America to be imported into any port 
of the British empire, unless in British bottoms, nav- 
igated by British crews, was utterly disregarded.* As if 
to keep pace with the usurpations at home, Massachusetts 
grew bolder in her aggrandizing schemes. The general 
May. court votcd, " upou pcrusal of the charter," that the 
northern boundary of their jurisdiction was three miles 
north of the most northerly point of the River Merrimac, 
and " thence upon a straight line east and west to each 
sea." To ascertain the extent of this novel discovery, 

October, survcyors, in part provided by Harvard College, were 



1 Hutchinson, vol. i. Appendix. 3 Hume. 

2 That they should have as free 4 Hutchinson, 
trade as the people of England. See 

Hazard, vol. i. p. 561. 



AGAINST THE CROWN. 283 

commissioned, who traced the waters of the Merrimac to 
Lake Winnipiseogee. With jealous fidehty, they lost 
not a second of latitude, and returned, as the result of 
their labors, a boundary which included Maine and New 
Hampshire on the east, and whose western extent was 
indefinite.^ 

The general court, at this date, assumed to themselves 1653. 
a higher style than they had yet adopted, and, in a dis- 
pute with the Commissioners of the United Colonies, 
called themselves the " Supreme Governors of a Com- 
monwealth," in confederacy with other nations.^ The 
elders and magistrates now had little more to fear. The 
aspiring Lord-General soon scattered the miserable fac- 
tion which interposed between him and supreme power; 
and the remarkable spectacle was exhibited to the world, 
of a church of an apostolic origin, and a throne of a 
dozen dynasties, crushed, for a time, under the weight of 
successful hypocrisy. 

That the throne of England should be filled by an Massachu- 

• setts con— 

Independent was a joyful event for Massachusetts, and, aiders iier- 
in an address voted by the general court to Cromwell, only of 
they prayed that God would be pleased to lengthen his 
days, and to continue him " the Lord Protector of the 1654. 
three nations, and of the churches of Christ Jesus." 
And Cromwell always remained a fast friend of his New 
England allies, who presumed upon his forbearance. 
Though they steadily refused to gratify his wishes by 
colonizing Ireland or Jamaica,'^ and though, in the vt^ar 

1 See Hazard, vol. i. pp. 564, 570. pie of New England to go there." 

2 Hazard, vol. ii. p. 272. " Which," says, Hutchinson, " it 

3 Hutchinson, vol. i. p. 165. lb. appears by Mr. Leverett's letter he 
Appendix. After conquering Ire- had much at heart." The colonists 
land, Cromwell was anxious to plant of New Haven, when suffering under 
there a colony from New England ; commercial disasters, at one time 
and, after conquering Jamaica, he gave up the idea of continuing in 
" renewed his invitation to the peo- the wilderness, and entered into trea- 



284f THE ELDERS CONSPIRE 

tliat had been raging" between the EngHsh and Dutch, 
they " considered themselves at hberty to continue in 
peace " with the enemies of England, and intimated to 
the Protector that " their owti act was necessary to bring 
them into a state of war," ^ they ever retained the respect 
and confidence of the great usurper. England became 
formidable under his vigorous sway ; and the colonies he 
loved, without sacrificing their independence, partook of 
the general prosperity. Until the Restoration, the calm 
surface of their equivocal relations with the parent state 
was scarcely ruffled ; and, while they steadily increased 
in population and wealth, their iron soil, yielding to their 
indomitable energy, was abundantly blessed by God. 
The necessaries, and many of the elegances of life, were 
cheaper than in England. " Good white and wheaten 
bread was no dainty." Many an " ordinary man " was 
able to indulge his taste in " gay clothing," and gratify a 
" liquorish tooth after sack, sugar, and plums." In for- 
getting the claims of country and kindred, the people 
did not " forget the English fiishion of stirring up their 
appetites," and abundant material was supplied for the 
table of the epicure, not only by the rich pastures of the 
farmer, but by the forests, which were alive with game, 
and the streams, which glistened with delicate fish." The 
edifices in the town of Boston were " large and beautiful, 
whose continual enlargement presaged some sumptuous 
city." 3 The Puritan State, with a line of sea-coast three 
hundred miles in length, and with a back country limited 



ties for the city of Gahvay, in Ire- officers might raise five hundred vol- 

land, though their designs were frus- unteers in the colony. Hazard, vol. 

trated. Perhaps Cromwell remem- i. p. 587. 

bcrcd this. - Johnson, b. ii. ch. 21. 

' Although Massachusetts refused ■^ Description of New England, 

to vote troops to aid Cromwell, yet Gorges, 
the general court consented that his 



AGAINST THE CROWN. 285 

only by tlie satiety of conquest, furnished room for the part 
gratification of the most boundless ambition. ' — ^ — - 

The death of the Protector, therefore, was an event cal- Etiect of 

11 • 1 ^^ 1 i''T*T 1 Cromwell's 

cuJated to excite but little apprehension m Massachusetts, death. 
Strong in that moral courage, which had hitherto carried 1658. 
their rising commonwealth over every quicksand of state, 
the elders and magistrates, dreaming of no restoration or 
retribution, watched, without anxiety, the current of events 
in their former home. Neither Richard Cromwell, nor 
the parliament, nor the committee of safety, which, dur- 
ing a short interregnum, rapidly displaced each other in 
power, could draw any positive declaration of attachment 
from the government of Massachusetts ; while, at the 
same time, not a single one of its acts could be construed 
as recognizing, in the slightest manner, the pretensions of 
Charles the Second. 

The news at last arrived, that the exiled prince was Massachu- 
about to return to the throne of his ancestors, and, by fuses to ac- 
a singular accident, the ship which brought these glad charies u. 
tidings contained among her passengers two of the regi- 1660. 
cides, who thenceforth were to wander like Cains through 
the wilderness, and to expiate their crimes by obscure 
and wretched deaths.^ But " the king was not pro- 
claimed in Massachusetts, nor was any alteration made in 
the forms of their public acts and proceedings."^ While 
the royal exile was ushered into his rightful heritage by 
bursts of enthusiasm at Breda, at Hague, at Dover, in 

1 GofFe and Whalley, with their that time began that wretched ca- 
comrades, only Illustrated the fact reer, which ended, for one, in a eel- 
apparent to every reader of history, lar, for the other, In a cave. See 
that regicides have rarely prospered. Hutchinson, vol. I. p. 197. The 
They were, at first, received with late Ezra Styles published a work on 
some civility in Massachusetts, but " The Judges," as he calls them, 
as soon as it became certain that which, for bitter prejudice and di- 
Charles II. would bring the colonies verting malignity, has rarely been 
to an account, "they were advised equalled, 
to think of removing ; " and from 2 Hutchinson. 



2S6 



THE ELDERS CONSPIRE 



October. 



Sudden 
reaction 
in Massa- 
chusetts. 
November, 



Virginia, in the little colonies of Roger Williams ; by 
nobility and commons ; by Churchmen, by Quakers, by 
Anabaptists, by Seekers, and Ranters ; by all, in short, 
who " now hoped that, the winter of public sorrows 
being over, the peaceful voice of the turtle would be 
heard in the flourishing spring approaching through all 
the lands of the English dominion ; " ^ the grave and 
stern Puritans alone remained unmoved. Notwithstand- 
ing the royal declaration, that liberty of conscience should 
henceforth be the privilege of every Englishman,^ not a 
head was uncovered, not a knee bent, not a prayer whis- 
pered, in grateful thanksgiving to the King of kings, 
who had thus, in his own good time, restored the out- 
lawed Stuart to his home and country. On the contrary 
the elders and magistrates utterly rejected such languid 
attempts as were made in favor of their sovereign, and a 
motion made in the general court to address the king 
failed.^ It was hoped, at least, as conflicting news arrived 
from time to time, concerning the unsettled state of public 
affairs in England, that something would happen favor- 
able to their permanent establishment, as one of the family 
of nations.* 

But the Puritan State had reached its culminating 
point. Authentic intelligence was soon received that the 
king was firmly seated on his throne, and held in his 
hand the globe as well as the sceptre, the symbol of 
dominion as well as that of authority. At the same 
time, advices from the colonial agent in London informed 



1 Hubbard. such an act of parliament, as, upon 

2 " We do declare a liberty to mature deliberation, shall be offered 
tender consciences, and that no man to us, for the full granting that in- 
shall be disquieted, or called in qucs- dulgcnce." Southey's Book, of the 
tion, for dillerences of opinion in Church. 

matters of religion, which do not ^ Hutchinson. 

disturb the peace of the kingdom ; 4 See Chalmers's Annals, p. 250. 

and we shall be ready to consent to 



AGAINST THE CROWN. 287 

the elders and magistrates that petitions and complaints part 
from royalists and republicans, from Churchmen, Quak- ^^ — -r — ' 
ers, and Anabaptists, to the prejudice of Massachusetts, 
were pouring in before the king in council.^ Complaints 
from the " heathen gentiles " were not wanting, to swell 
the hostile clamor ; and the " native princes," who had 
been entrusted to the care of the corporation, to be taught 
the knowledge of Christianity, now humbly requested 
King Charles to protect them from its rapacity and 
aggressions.^ A singular reaction immediately took 
place. Alarmed by the sinister nature of these tidings, 
aware that Independency was completely crushed, and 
that it would be useless to contend with the fleets and 
armies of England, the general court was immediately 
convened. Loyal addresses were voted to King Charles December. 
and the two Houses of Parliament, wherein it was declared 
that " the lot of Massachusetts in the late vicissitudes, 
after the example of the good old Nonconformists, had 
been to act only a passive part." ^ Letters of a private 
nature were also sent to several persons of quality, ask- 
ing their intercession in behalf of the colony. Nor did 166I. 
this satisfy the momentary impulse. Mr. Eliot, the 
" Indian Apostle." was called upon to answer for an 
" odd kind of book," on the nature of civil government, March. 
published by him shortly after the murder of Charles the 
First, in which he undertook to prove that monarchical 
governments are contrary to the Word of God. This 
work, which had formerly met with their approbation, 
the elders and magistrates now declared "to be full of 
seditious principles, in relation to all established govern- 
ments in the Christian world, and especially against the 

1 Hutchinson. have required a pretty strong disbe- 

2 Ibid. lief in the efficacy of good works 

3 Hutchinson. Hubbard. It must to have made this unblushing avowal. 



288 THE ELDERS CONSPIRE 

CHAP, government established in their native country." Ehot 
^-^-Y — ' was allowed time to disown his " Christian Common- 
wealth ; " and, coming forward, he publicly retracted his 
opinions, acknowledging that they did scandalize the king, 
lords, and commons of England ; that they justified the 
" late innovations ; " and that monarchy was not only " a 
lawful, but eminent form of government." ^ 
The elders In the mean time, the king's answer to the address of 

and majris- . - , -n/r i t 

trates dis- the general court was on its way to Massachusetts. It 

satisfied r i i -i itt • ^ 

with the was found to be gracious, but general. He promised 

answer of ii-i a • 

the king, that " he would not come behind any of his rof/al prede- 
cessors, in a just encouragement of his loving subjects " 
in New England, nor forget to make all good people 
partakers of those blessings of liberty and moderation 
expressed in his declarations.^ Although a day of thanks- 
J^iay. giving was appointed for the gracious answer of Charles, 
the elders were not satisfied. They saw nothing in it 
. which assured them that the continuance of their usurpa- 
tions would be overlooked ; for what equivocal meaning 
might there not be concealed in this promise of general 
liberty ? But their alarm was chiefly excited by the ac- 
counts from their agent, which accompanied the king's 
letter. From him they learned that their charter was in 
imminent danger, and that rumors were rife in court cir- 
cles that a general governor would be sent over, and their 
political system entirely subverted. " Episcopacy, Com- 
mon Prayer, bowing at the name of Jesus, sign of the 
cross in baptism, the altar, and organs, are in use, and like 
to be more, " wrote the astonished agent to his constit- 
uents ; " the Lord keep and preserve his churches, that 
there may not be fainting in a day of trial." ^ 

1 Hubbard. Hutchinson. This - Hubbard, 
was the second time that Eliot un- 3 Letter of John Lcvcrctt to Mas- 

dcrwcnt the displeasure of his fellow- sachusetts. 
ciders. 



AGAINST THE CROWN. 289 



Part II. 



Declaration of Rights — Charles II. proclaimed — Special Mission to 
England — Agreeable Disappointment of the Agents — Ingratitude of 
Massachusetts towards the Agents — The two Parties of Prerogative 
and Freedom — King's Letter disregarded — The General Court se- 
crete the Charter — The Royal Commissioners — The General Court 
again refuses to accede to the Royal Demands — Again addresses the 
King — Superstitious Fears of the Colonists — The Confederacy broken 
up by the Commissioners — Objections to the Legality of the Commis- 
sion answered — Third Royal Letter to Massachusetts — The General 
Court again disobeys the King — The Policy of Massachusetts, during 
the Wars with France and Holland — Rapid Advance of Massachusetts 
in Wealth and Population — Fourth Royal Letter to the Colony — 
Conflicting Emotions of the Elders — Judgment against the Charter — 
Death of the King — Effect of the Judgment against the Charter. 



The passage of the Navigation Act, which confined part 
the carrying trade to British ships, navigated by British > — ,^-^ 
crews, brought the alarm of the colony to a crisis. King ^^Ki^Jht*"" 
Charles the Second had not yet been publicly proclaimed 
in Massachusetts, and the performance of this duty was 
further delayed until an assembly of elders and magis- 
trates, which had been convened by the general court, 
could point out the proper policy to be pursued by 
"honest, prudent, and faithful men." This convention 
drew up a formal declaration, asserting the general rights June. 
of the corporation to admit freemen to its franchise, and 
to choose proper governors and other officers for the 
management of its affairs. They declared, also, that the 
colony owed allegiance to the king, since it was held of 
him as of his manor of East Greenwich ; that it was the 
duty of his subjects to " endeavor the preservation " of 
his Majesty's person and dominions ; and that the war- 
rants for the apprehension of the regicides ought to be 

25 



290 THE ELDERS CONSPIRE 

CHAP, faithfully executed by the authority of the court, because 
"^ — A^ Massachusetts should not be a shelter for fugitives from 
justice. To these very proper avowals they added the 
following questionable propositions, namely, that the gov- 
ernor, assistants, and deputies had full legislative and 
executive powers, in all civil and ecclesiastical cases, with- 
out appeal, except where there was repugnancy to the 
laws of England ; that this government was authorized 
to resist, by force of arms, all persons who should at- 
tempt to injure the plantation, or to abridge the privileges 
of its people ; that " any impositions prejudicial to the 
country and contrary to its laws, not repugnant to the 
laws of England," were infringements of charter right ; 
that they ought to seek the prosperity of the king and 
nation, by punishing all breaches of the two tables of 
moral law, and by propagating and defending the " true 
Protestant religion," according to the faith given in the 
Holy Scriptures.^ Having passed through the alembic 
of the elders, this colonial manifesto was adopted by the 
general court. Thus the great principles of the future 
struggle began to develop themselves. It was no longer 
a simple question of law, involving the violation of a 
charter, the nature of an oath, or the justice of a whip- 
ping. Such were the details that occupied the attention 
of Charles the First. But a grave step had been taken 
since his time, and the point now to be decided was, 
whether the citizens of Massachusetts were the subjects 
of the King of England. To compass their wishes, the 
elders and magistrates were willing to sacrifice their late 
friends, the regicides, and to give their sovereign the 
empty title of king, but further than this they would 
resist with force of arms. They " considered themselves 

1 Hutchinson, vol. i. Appendix, p. 455. Hubbard. 



AGAINST THE CROWN. 



mi 



entitled to the rights of Englishmen," without being under part 

any obligations to perform the duties of Englishmen. ' — v — ■ 

We cannot wonder at their alarm. The ships which King 

^ . Charles the 

arrived from England brought no longer the cheering Second 
advices they were wont to receive during the protectorate, ed. 
Their loyalty, their integrity, their honor, their justice, 
their morality, were all impeached by their enemies at 
court. Since the accession of Charles the Second, he 
had heard nothing but endless complaints of the people 
of Massachusetts. There was no one to speak a good 
word for them ; and now, having asserted their rights 
and privileges, as a matter of prudence, the king was 
publicly proclaimed, and an address was sent to Charles, August. 
abject in its terms, and profane in its expressions of loy- 
alty.^ They style this address the Eucharistical approach 
unto the best of kings, and call their sovereign a God, 
Lord, and Saviour. Thus, a year after the exiled prince 
had returned to his country, Massachusetts, the first to 
desert the royal cause, was the last to welcome its rees- 
tablishment. But what a welcome ! Not the genuine 
outpouring of the patriotic heart, but wrung by stern 
necessity, like tears from the eyes of the strong man.^ 
What had become of those " loving subjects," whom the 
first Charles had surrendered to the Governor and Com- 
pany of Massachusetts Bay, to be returned to the nation 
at a subsequent period, confirmed in loyalty and faith ? 

The day of the proclamation was like a day of mourn- 
ing rather than of rejoicing. No allowance could be 
made, on an occasion of such ill omen to Puritanism, for 
the least excess of joy, if, perchance, it could be found in 
the colony. Strict orders were given for the prevention 

1 Hazard, vol. il. p. 593. mers, that the people of that juris- 

2 The authority from which the diction might consider the whole 
king derived his kingship was care- as an election, recent, and provin- 
fuUy concealed, in order, says Chal- cial. Chalmers's Annals, p. 253. 



292 



THE ELDERS CONSPIRE 



Special 
mission to 
England. 



of all disorderly conduct, and it was distinctly announced 
that no person might expect the least indulgence for any 
breach of the laws. To drink the health of the king 
was forbidden ; ^ and no public thanksgiving consecrated 
the gloomy day, though it was always forthcoming when 
the elders and magistrates had been successful in finesse, 
or were receiving, instead of bestowing, a benediction and 
a blessing. The people of Massachusetts, a nation born 
as it were in a day, never, from the first, yielded grace- 
fully to their sovereign, where it trenched upon their own 
independence. 

The proclaiming of the king was soon followed by a 
special mission to England. " Much opposition " was 
made to this measure, which could only have been car- 
ried amid the distressing doubts which hung over their 
position at court.^ The general court were unable to 
distinguish their friends from their enemies, and they 
deemed it necessary that the cause of true religion should 
be represented at Whitehall. An elder and a magistrate 

December, were dispatched for this purpose ; ^ and while they were 
instructed to exhibit the colony as loyal and true, to 
endeavor to remove therefrom all "scandal and reproach," 
and to ascertain his Majesty's " apprehensions " concern- 
ing them, they were also expressly forbidden to do any 
thing prejudicial to the charter, and were ordered to keep 
jgg2 the general court informed of every occurrence. The 

Februarj'. agents Sailed for England with many misgivings.* 



1 The order announces that the 
king has forbidden, in a special man- 
ner, that his health should be drunk. 
This sumptuary regulation, which 
was meant for hard-drinking coun- 
tries, sat awkwardly enough upon 
the pious Puritans. Grahaine echoes 
Cotton Mather, in abusing this harm- 
less custom of polite life, because it 
had a heathen origin. 



2 Letter of Mr. Pynchon to Mr. 
Davenport. See Hutchinson, vol. 
i. p. 202, n. 

•^ John Norton and Simon Brad- 
street. 

4 They were very unwilling to 
go, and required an indemnity for 
all damages they might sustain, in 
person and property. 



AGAINST THE CROWN. 293 

Well might they tremble at the task thus imposed part 
upon them. They were required to satisfy the king "^-^ — ' 
that there existed loyalty, where they could only offer 
in proof the fruits of rebellion. Where were the oaths 
of supremacy and allegiance'? Did they send assist- 
ance to their late sovereign or his destroyers, when the 
latter were hunting him with the fury of bloodhounds 
from one place to another "? Did they proclaim a fast, 
when the armed clans of Scotland, drunk with fanati- 
cism, sold their prince, himself a Scotchman, for twenty 
pieces of silver ] Did they weep or rejoice, when that 
hero of hypocrisy and treason, Oliver Cromwell, defying 
God and man, seated himself on the throne of England'? 
Did they hail, with the enthusiasm of faithful servants, 
the return of the rightful heir from a strange land to the 
heritage of his fathers ^ Were then* garments unspot- 
ted with the blood of that helpless people, which was 
intrusted to their care, not to be slaughtered or pillaged 
or led captive, not to be converted to Puritanism, but to 
be taught the principles of true religion and civilization ? 
Were they, even now, appearing before their sovereign, 
repentant of the past and promising better for the future, 
or had they not, but a few weeks previous, avowed a 
determination to defend their ragged and mutilated char- 
ter by force of armsl Were they not, at this very time, 
living in open defiance of the laws established by parlia- 
ment for the regulation of trade and navigation ? Before 
such questions as these, prompted by the deadly hatred 
of their enemies, the stoutest among the stout hearts of 
Massachusetts might well quail. To all this they could 
only answer by empty protestations of loyalty. 

They were pleasantly disappointed. While rumors Agreeable 
were circulating among their fearful constituents that ment^of the 
they were forcibly detained in England, and that one of ° 

25* 



294* THE ELDERS CONSPIRE 

them, the elder, was in the Tower,^ they were learning 
the amenities of life at the court of the swarthy Stuart. 
For Charles received them with kindness and indulgence, 
although the agent of the gallant little colony of Rhode 
Island met them before their sovereign, and challenged 
them to cite, in behalf of Massachusetts, one act of duty 
or loyalty to the kings of England.^ Go back to your 
country, said, in substance, the good-natured prince, and 
tell your friends that I have no wish to deprive them of 
their charter, so often violated, or of their privileges, so 
often perverted. Nay, more ; I will confirm their for- 
feited rights, if they will only give me some substantial 
assurance that they will be faithful and loyal to me and 
my successors. I wish for no more empty protestations 
of loyalty. Let them show that they mean what they 
say, by revising all laws passed by the general court 
during the late usurpation, and repealing such as are 
repugnant to the royal authority ; ^ let the oath of alle- 
giance be duly administered ; let justice be distributed in 
my name ; since liberty of conscience was the cause of 
your transferring the charter, let all my subjects, who 
love the Church of England, use, without molestation, 
its sacred ritual ; restore the original intent of the char- 
ter, at least by abolishing the absurd religious tests 
required of all the magistrates, and let the only qualifica- 
tions of office be wisdom and integrity ; let all persons 
of honest lives and conversations be admitted to the 
ordinances of religion ; finally, let all freeholders of com- 
petent estates, not immoral in their lives, have a share in 



1 Hutchinson, vol. i. p. 202, n. nounced invalid. This is untrue. 

2 Chalmers's Annals, p. 273. He only required those to be an- 

3 Grahamc, with his usual want nulled, which were, as the charter 
of candor, says that the king required expresses it, repugnant to the laws 
all laws passed by the court, during of England. 

the abeyance of royalty, to be pro- 



AGAINST THE CROWN. ^95 

the election of those officers, civil and military, whom part 
they are obliged to obey. On these conditions, I will ^-^y^-- 
waive the past ; I will graciously impute the violation 
of the charter to the iniquity of the times rather than to 
evil intention ; and, passing over the illegality of your 
constitution, will confirm your privileges to you and to 
your children forever.^ 

The kindness of the king won the hearts of the agents, ingratitude 
They began to take a healthier view of the relations cimsetts 
existing between the mother country and the colony, and the agents. 
they bore to their constituents, with joyful hearts, the 
royal letter of indemnity. " They returned like Noah's September. 
dove, with an olive-branch of peace in their mouths." ^ 
But their reception at home bitterly disappointed them. 
The favors they had obtained from Charles were regarded 
as " no more than might well have been expected," while 
the conditions annexed to them were considered as griev- 
ances. Justly irritated by this unreasonableness, the 
agents declared to the court, that if they refused com- 
pliance with the king's demands, " the blood that might 
be shed in consequence would lie at their door." ^ This 
bold avowal was followed by a recriminating charge, that 
they had " laid a foundation of ruin to the liberties " of 
the colony, and they immediately lost the confidence of 
their countrymen.* Sensibly affected by such ingrati- 
tude, one of them, the elder, soon after died of a broken 
heart.^ 

But the mission of these gentlemen produced an im- 



1 Hutchinson. Hubbard. Haz- ^ Bradstreet, the magistrate, was 
ard. a man of more phlegm, says Hutch- 

2 Hubbard. inson. It was recollected of Norton, 

3 Letter of Mr. Davis to Mr. probably, that he was the only elder, 
Davenport. Hutchinson, vol. i. p. who, on the news of the Restoration, 
204, n. voted that Charles the Second should 

* Mather. be proclaimed in Massachusetts. 



. 



296 THE ELDERS CONSPIRE 

CHAP, portant change in the pohtics of Massachusetts. The 
^^-Y^ first bhish of rehgious enthusiasm, which so highly col- 

the^cfoiony ored the transfer of the charter, had long since vanished. 

two parties Many of the pioneers of Massachusetts were sleeping in 

tive and'' their gravcs, and their descendants were becoming rich, 
and unfitted for the plain realities of the religion of their 
fathers. Boston, the renowned capital of trans-Atlantic 
Puritanism, was becoming famous as a metropolis of 
commerce ; trade was swelling the hearts of the few. 
The stern simplicity of republicanism dwelt only with 
the many. The reins of government were still nominally 
held in the shrivelled hands of nearly the last of the 
compeers of Winthrop ; ^ but the court of assistants, 
the renowned oligarchy of New England, were yielding 
the spirit of government to the representatives of the 
freemen. The former were willing to accustom them- 
selves to the idea of a compromise with the crown. 
They were losing their faith in the exercises of the 
pulpit.^ But the latter remained true to the principles of 
their religion. To them the elders still remained the 
oracles of Heaven, and to them the elders were about to 
transfer the power of the state. The coalition, which 
had existed between the elders and magistrates, was 
breaking up, and henceforth the theatre of action was to 
be the general court, not the secret council-chamber of 
the magistrates. The voice of the latter was no longer 
to " be as the voice of God." 

Kind's let- Meanwhile, the letter of the king was published as the 

tcr ilisre- , , • i i • i i • i 

garded. royal order required, but with the caution, that " inas- 



i Endecott. paper, about the year 1681, " rcpre- 

~ To show the change that had senting the great apostasy of both 

taken place in a few years, Peter magistrates and ministers." Hutch- 

Tilton, a " zealous deputy," was inson. 

concerned in the publication of a 



AGAINST THE CROWN. S97 

much as it had influence upon the churches as well as part 
the civil State," all action thereon should be suspended — ^— ^ 
until it had received the full consideration of the parties 
concerned. It is a hard thing for a rich man to sell all 
that he has and give to the poor. The elders had heaped 
up a pile of civil and religious wealth which they could 
not dissipate without a struggle. They shuddered at the 
idea, that the treasures resulting from the severe labors 
of half a century, labors that had changed the face of the 
wilderness, converted a desert into a garden, and filled 
the broad bays and great rivers of New England with the 
fleets of a successful commerce, should be divided with 
Quakers, Anabaptists, and all the rabble of dissenters. 
They thought they were doing God service by disobey- 
ing their lawful Prince, when, in fact, they were only 
gratifying their o^vn pride and love of power. And how 
was it possible for them to allow the services of a popish 
religion to be said and celebrated in their midst ; to 
throw the protection of their laws, like a rich mantle of 
fine needlework, around the deformities and superstitions 
of the Catholic Church ? Actuated by such impulses, 
the judicious requirements of the king were neglected. 
One thing only was sullenly yielded, where all had been 
improperly withheld, and it was ordered, for the first time 
in Massachusetts, that all process should be issued in the October. 
king's name. To the frank and generous letter of 
Charles, therefore, they found it convenient to return an 

evasive reply.^ November. 

Affairs now pursued their usual course, but " the prin- 



1 Col. Laws. Mather. Hutch- dered to attach," &c. It was in 
inson, &c. The style of writs now this year that the general court au- 
was, "You are hereby ordered in his thorized a new coinage in the col- 
Majesty's name," Sec. Heretofore, ony — that of two-penny pieces of 
it had been, "You are hereby or- silver. 2 Mass. Hist. Coll. vol. ii. 



298 THE ELDERS CONSPIRE 

CHAP, cipal persons in Church and . State were never without 
' — y — ■ fearful expectations of being deprived of their privi- 
Thegene- Icgcs." ^ The fact could not be disguised that they 
secrete the werc acting in a manner that neither their charter war- 
ranted, nor their king approved. No wonder, therefore, 
that they felt unsafe ! No wonder that the elders, find- 
ing their burden grievous, hailed with gladness an acces- 
sion of numbers in the arrival of several dissenting 
preachers, whom the statute of uniformity disabled at 
home.^ But their apprehensions increased, when the 
learned Puritan, Dr. Owen, and " some choice ones," 

1663. checked this religious emigration, by declining the offer 
of their hospitality, on the ground of their precarious 
situation.^ For it was now rumored in England, that 
since they had evaded the king's indulgent demands, his 
Majesty had determined to ascertain how far the terms 
of the charter had been observed.'* And true enough, 
surmise and suspense began soon to assume a more defi- 

1664. nite shape. In the spring of the following year, intelli- 
gence arrived that a royal fleet was preparing to sail for 
New England, containing, as passengers, several gentle- 
men of distinction. Were they coming to reward the 
freemen of Massachusetts for their loyalty, or to punish 
their disobedience ] Would their errand be one of 
mercy or of vengeance ^ Active measures were imme- 
diately adopted. Precautions were used to prevent the 
landing of armed men from the ships, and an apology 
was prepared to urge upon the officers of the fleet when 
it should arrive, why but a small number of the crew 



p. 274. This shows how far they 3 Qookin's Letter, cited in Hutch- 

were from even meeting the king inson. Neal says that the reason 

half-way. Owen did not emigrate, was because 

1 Hutchinson. he was forbidden by the king. 

- Stats. 13 and 14 Charles II.. 4 Grahame. 
c. 4. 



AGAINST THE CROWN. 299 

should be allowed to land at a time.^ A day of fasting 
and prayer was appointed throughout the colony, to in- 
voke the Divine protection ; and the appeal to Heaven May. 
was accompanied by an order for the secretion of their 
charter.^ Thus, they coupled a great act of devotion 
with one, the ultimate object of which was illegal, and 
the tears of invocation were shed at the same moment 
that they were preparing for unlawful resistance. 

The arrival of the royal commissioners somewhat re- The loyai 

IT 1 J commis- 

assured them. They found that, as usual, distance had sioners. 
magnified the danger, and that, so far as the charter was juiy. 
concerned, their errand was rather one of inquiry than 
of execution. The commissioners were the bearers of a 
letter from the king, in which he declared that he had 
not " the least intention of violating or infringing the 
charter granted by his royal father." ^ In point of fact, 
the commission was of a mixed nature. War with the 
Dutch, the great rivals of the English in trade, now 
appeared inevitable, and various schemes were mooted 
for crippling this naval power. Among these, was the 
reduction of the Manhadoes ; and the task of effecting 
this object was assigned to Sir Robert Carr, Col. Rich- 
ard Nichols, George Cartwright, and Samuel Maverick.* 
This being accomplished, they were specially empowered 

1 Hutchinson, vol. i. 210. first happy arrival in England; and 
~ I know of nothing which Illus- we have had many reasons since to 
trates more forcibly than this the priv- confirm us in that resolution." 
ileges of an English subject at that Hubbard. Hazard, 
time, when liberty was not, in all 4 Hubbard says of the two lead- 
respects, so well understood as now. ing commissioners, Nichols and 
If the English sovereign had pos- Cartwright, that they were emi- 
sessed the power of a tyrant, what nently qualified with abilities fit for 
would he have cared for a square their important offices, nor wanting ■ 
yard of engrossed parchment ? in resolution to carry on any honor- 
3 Hutchinson, vol. i. App. p. 461. able design for promoting his Maj- 
Hubbard, p. 578. "Seeing we can- esty's interest. Of Carr and Cart- 
not, in person, visit those our so dis- Wright, Hutchinson says that they 
tant dominions, we have purposed to were very unfit for such a trust, 
send commissioners thither since our 



300 THE ELDERS CONSPIRE 

CHAP, to investigate and decide all complaints, disputes, and 
^^ — f — ' abuses that might exist among the colonies in New Eng- 
land. For, in addition to her civil and ecclesiastical 
usurpations, Massachusetts, by her aggrandizing policy, 
had involved herself in disputes with Mason and Gorges, 
concerning the titles to Maine and New Hampshire ; ^ 
which, now that the royal cause was reestablished, these 
loyal proprietors were by no means disposed to forego. 
And, reads the commission, we have received some ad- 
dresses from the great men and natives of those coun- 
tries, " whose reduction to the true knowledge and fear 
of God, is the most worthy and glorious end of all those 
plantations," in which they complain of breach of faith, 
and acts of violence and injustice, which they have been 
forced to undergo from our subjects, whereby not only 
our government is traduced, but the reputation and credit 
of the Christian religion is brought into prejudice and 
reproach.^ It was also stated by the king, in his letter, 
that one object of the commission Avas " to extinguish 
those malicious calumnies which wicked spirits labor to 
infuse into the minds of men, that our subjects in those 
parts look upon themselves as independent upon us and 
our laws, and that we have no confidence in their affection 
and obedience." 

Such was the errand of the commissioners, as laid 
before the governor and magistrates a few days after 
their arrival. But, as in all military projects where 
rapidity of execution is one great element of success, the 
primary object now was to reduce the Dutch. Give us 

1 The claims of the proprietors of their line threescore miles " beyond 
Maine and New Hampshire had their original bound, and had "en- 
been submitted, by royal order, to a dcavored to model and contrive 
committee of the first lawyers in the themselves into a free state." Haz- 
klngdom, who unanimously reported ard, vol. ii. p. 577. 
that "the corporation of boston, in '■-* Hutchinson, vol. i. App. Haz- 
New England," had "stretched ard. 



AGAINST THE CROWN. 301 

all the assistance you can for this purpose, said the com- 
missioners, and when we have accomplished our military 
tasks, we will return to you in the simple habiliments of 
peace, and discharge our other duties. In the mean 
time, we hope you will consider his Majesty's former pro- 
posals to you, which your own agents procured at his 
hands, and to which you have returned unsatisfactory 
replies. Brought thus, for the first time, face to face 
with the representatives of the king, the magistrates re- 
lieved themselves of all personal responsibility, by refer- 
ring the whole subject to the general court, which they 
ordered to convene forthwith. And the commissioners, 
having repeated their advice, departed for the Man- 
hadoes. 

The general court assembled at an early day. The The gene- 
first resolution of the deputies exhibited the spirit which again refu- 
they had brought with them from the meeting-houses of cede to the 
the colony. We will be loyal to our king, they declared, mands. 
but we will also adhere to our patent, " so dearly ob- August. 
tained and so long enjoyed." They then evinced their 
readiness to join in humbling their hated rivals, by voting 
a force of two hundred men, to be equipped and main- 
tained by the colony.^ But here all concession stopped. 
Although they nominally repealed the law which required 
" church membership " of all candidates for the dignity 
of freemen, yet they virtually rendered the repeal of no 
effect by substituting a provision which made it necessary 
for such candidates to be furnished with certificates from 



1 Smith, in his history of New this. But it is certain that the corn- 
York, says, that the commissioners missioners thanked the general court 
complained to the secretary of state for their ready assistance, and there 
of the backwardness of Massachu- is every reason to think that the col- 
setts in furnishing assistance. As onists were glad of an opportunity 
their military capacity now was to humble the Dutch, who rivalled 
equal to 4000 foot and 400 horse, them in trade, and interfered mate- 
there seems some reason, at first, for rially with their Indian policy. 
26 



302 



THE ELDERS CONSPIRE 



CHAP. 
IV. 



The gene- 
ral court 
addresses 
the king. 
October. 



the ministers of the places where they resided, that they 
were " orthodox " in their rehgion, as well as moral in 
their lives. They postponed any further action until the 
return of the commissioners ; but knowing that there 
was little hope of a favorable issue, and conscious that 
their affairs would not bear investigation, they addressed 
themselves directly to the king. "Dread Sovereign," 
they wrote, " as the high place you sustain on the earth 
doth number you here among the gods, so we hope you 
will imitate the God of Heaven in maintaining the cause 
of the afflicted and poor." With this preamble they set 
forth a brief history of their charter, and declared that, 
under its security, they did settle and fertilize the wilder- 
ness ; that they had now, for more than thirty years, 
enjoyed the privilege of self-government as their un- 
doubted right ; that they had received from his Majesty 
several letters full of gracious assurance, tending to con- 
firm them in their enjoyments ; that they had endeavored 
to the utmost to satisfy the king in his demands, so far 
as was consistent with their duty towards God, and their 
just rights under the patent. They proceeded to say, 
that a royal commission now threatened their security, 
whereby, instead of being governed by rulers of their 
own, they are likely to be subjected to the arbitrary 
power of strangers, one of whom is known to be their 
professed enemy.^ They enlarged on the poverty of the 
country by reason of the coldness of the winters, the bar- 
renness of the soil, and the want of some staple com- 
modity, and they averred its inability to reimburse the 
crown for the expense it would sustain in the mainte- 
nance of the conunission. They acknowledged that 



1 Maverick. This gentleman was lege of worshipping God according 
a churchman, and, as will be shown to the ritual of his church, 
hereafter, had been denied the privi- 



AGAINST THE CROWN. 303 

there had been discontents and divisions among their part 
number, but drew the inference therefrom that the great — ^-^ 
body of the people were satisfied with their present con- 
dition, for " there is no government under Heaven where 
some discontented persons may not be found." They 
appealed to God for the truth of the assertion that their 
greatest ambition was to lead a poor and quiet life in a 
" corner of the world," and they concluded this able but 
partial paper in terms of much pathos. " Royal Sir, it 
is in your power to say of your people in New England, 
they shall not die. It was an honor to one of your royal 
ancestors, that he was called the poor man's king. It 
was Job's excellency, when he sat as king among his 
people, that he was a father to the poor. They are a 
poor people who now cry unto the Lord their king. 
Let our government live, our patent live, our magistrates 
live, our laws and liberties live, our rehgious enjoyments 
live, so shall we all yet have further cause to say from 
our hearts, let the king live forever." This most inge- 
nious address, which contains no allusion, however re- 
mote, to the extraordinary usurpations of the Puritan 
State, was dispatched to England, in company with pri- 
vate petitions to several of the leading public men.^ 

While these epistles were on their way to their sev- Supeisti- 

. . 1 •! 1 • • 1 • tious fears 

eral destmations, while the commissioners, having re- of the coio- 
duced the Manhadoes before assistance from Massachu- 
setts had reached them,^ were pursuing their inquiries in 
other colonies of New England, and were gradually 
approaching Massachusetts, the superstitious minds of 
the freemen were disturbed by remarkable phenomena in 

1 Mather. Neal. Hutchinson, came English subjects, retaining 
etc. See the address, at length, in their estates, and many of their priv- 
Hutchinson, vol. i. App. p. 460. ileges, and their governor also yield- 

2 The Manhadoes surrendered ing allegiance to the English crown. 
August 27. The inhabitants be- 



304< THE ELDERS CONSPIRE 

the [)hysical world. For three successive years, the 
wlieat harvests throughout the colony had been spoiled 

November, by blast and mildew ; ^ and, late in the autumn, a 
strange-looking" comet appeared in the eastern horizon, 
portending danger from that quarter to the little com- 
monwealth. The veteran Puritan, whose thoughts re- 
verted to the palmy days of the colony, when the ftiitli of 
its inhabitants was bright and strong, before bloody wars 
and religious persecutions had stained their innocence and 
weakened their moral character, beheld, with terror, the 
fiery wanderer of the skies, which, night after night, flew 
on its mysterious journey, until it rapidly sank in the 
west. The death of " that reverend and holy man of 
God," Mr. John Cotton, who had been the chief artificer 
of the Puritan structures in Massachusetts, was heralded 
by the appearance of a comet ; could another phenome- 
non of this nature, so much more extraordinary, prog- 
nosticate the overthrow of the institutions he had reared ? 

The con- The commissioners returned to Boston before the close 

fcdcrucv 

broken up of wiutcr. They had, in their progress, received the 
commis- submission to the king of the other New England Colo- 
nies, and any hopes of bringing the confederacy to 
1665. bear at this crisis were necessarily frustrated.^ , Besides, 
ruary. ]y[j^gs^r^(,}j,jgg^tg^ |,y ]jg,. faithless course towards Connec- 
ticut, had done nmch to weaken the spirit of colonial 
union. So indignant were the people of Connecticut at 
the perfidy of their sister colony, that their general court 

' Hutchinson. Mather. Neal. policy," endeavored to detach the 

etc. other New England States from "the 

~ In Connecticut, New Plymouth, obnoxious " colony of Massachusetts, 

and Rhode Island, they " met with Connecticut and New Haven, now 

a success equal to their expecta- united by charter, and Rhode Island, 

tions." Chalmers's Annals, p. 389. " having just experienced the royal 

There seems some reason to sup- favor, were disposed to receive the 

pose that the idea was or had been commissioners with courtesy," etc. 

entertained, Grahame remarks, that Pitkin, 
the commissioners, with " insidious 



AGAINST THE CROWN. 305 

declared " that Massachusetts had broken the covenant 
with them, in acting- directly contrary to the articles of 
confederation."^ Even the descendants of the Pilgrims 
of Plymouth, but a few weeks after, submitted unreserv- 
edly to the royal demands, avowing, " as in the presence May. 
of God," that they did not enter into the league with 
any intent to cast off their dependence upon England, a 
thing which they " utterly abhorred." ^ Massachusetts 
found herself, therefore, alone. But the spirit which the 
elders infused into her councils made the little common- 
wealth equal to the emergency. The freeman never 
despaired so long as he could witness the sombre gow^l 
of his minister in the street, or listen to his oracular 
teachings from the pulpit. 

The commissioners found, on their return, that rumors iii success 

... r 1 • -of the com- 

of a sinister nature, concernmg the objects or their mis- mission. 
sion, had been circulated among the people. It was 
charged that their commission had been " made under a 
hedge ; " ^ and it was the general belief that they had 
been sent by the king to raise a revenue for the crown, 
and that, to compass this end, all improved lands were to 
be charged with an annual rent of twelve pence per 
acre. To stop at once this fruitful source of trouble, 
they requested that all the freemen of the colony might 
be assembled at the next election day, to learn the kind- 
ness and favor felt by the king towards his trans- Atlantic 
subjects. To this request the magistrates, with some- 
thing of their old spirit, declined to accede ; saying that 
not only would it leave the families of the freemen 



1 Pitkin, p. 53. Trumbull. and made divers determinations, 

2 This reply is very insignificant, which " had no long effect." Hutch- 
See Hutchinson, vol. i. p. 214, n. Inson. 

After visiting Plymouth, they went 3 Truth and Innocency Defended, 

among the Narragansetts, and made p. 95. 
inquiry into the titles of land there, 
26* 



306 THE ELDERS CONSPIRE 

exposed to the fury of the natives, but that they could 
not understand " the reason of such a motion." ^ The 
demand is so reasonable, said the hasty Cartwright, that 
treason must be at the bottom of refusing- it. But the 
commissioners waived the point for the time, and, at the 
May. next session of the court, laid before the magistrates the 
slanders that were circulating concerning them among the 
freemen ; and requested that, as a refutation of these 
reports, the letters of the colony to the king, and his 
Majesty's answers thereto, might be published. They 
accompanied this request with assurances that the king 
felt great kindness towards a colony which had exhibited 
so good an example of sobriety and industry ; that, so 
far from wishing to abridge, his Majesty was ready to 
enlarge the privileges granted by his royal father, or to 
make any alterations that would enure to the prosperity of 
the colony ; that the chief object of their commission was 
to create a better understanding between the king and his 
subjects in New England ; tliat, in this way, a founda- 
tion would be laid for nmtual confidence, the designs of 
wicked and malicious persons would be frustrated, and 
Massachusetts, shaking off the aspersions that had been 
cast upon her loyalty, would be regarded by the king 
with the same affection and favor as any integral part of 
England itself. They added, that they hoped no just 
occasion would arise to hinder this prospective harmony, 
and requested that a map or plan of the colony might be 
furnished them, in order to facilitate their investigations 
of the border titles.^ 

To retrace, step by step, the progress of the Puritan 
State, until it resolved itself into the little company of 
" knights, gentlemen, and burgesses," that had, with pal- 

1 Hubbard. Mather. Hutchin- 2 Hutchinson, 

son. Ncal. 



AGAINST THE CROWN. 307 

pitating- hearts, first decided in the room of a private paet 
house ill London to transfer their charter to the wikler- ' — ■< — 
ness, was any thing but palatable. They were " already 
hardened into a republic," ^ and the idea of any subser- 
viency, however just and proper, was odious to their feel- 
ings. Charles, however, had no wish to deprive these 
gallant soldiers of the wilderness of the legitimate spoils 
of their conquests. They had, in some respects, fought 
a good fight, and had proved themselves fitted for higher 
purposes than the trucking of skins and baubles with the 
Indians. Therefore, said he, but acknowledge me as 
your sovereign, and treat with proper respect those laws 
which are superior to us all, and I will even enlarge your 
privileges, if such be your desire. 

This communication was laid before the general court, 
but the deputies proceeded with much diplomatic caution. 
They seemed haunted by some fear that the commis- 
sioners were endeavoring to overreach them in finesse. 
Before making any reply to their proposals, they required 
that the commissioners should divulge the full extent of 
their authority, and of his Majesty's commands. And 
when this was declined, until they had made answer to 
what they already knew,^ they replied with a reservation 
of liberty to enlarge upon their answer, if there should 
be future occasion. In their answer, they acknowledged 
with humble thanks his Majesty's expressions of favor 
towards them, and their readiness to seize every oppor- 
tunity to display their loyalty in return. They avowed 
their willingness to confer with the commissioners con- 



1 Clarendon's Communication to very ungracious manner, but he 

King Charles, in Pownal's Memo- does not say how. Perhaps they 

rial. Pitkin. were exceedingly irritated by the 

- Hutchinson, who is quite co- slanders that were circulated con- 
pious on this conference, remarks cerning the objects they had in 
that the commissioners declined in a \ iew. 



808 THE ELDERS CONSPIRE 

cerniiiof the best method of arresting all false rumors ; 
and declared that copies of his Majesty's letters had been 
scattered about the country, according to their desire. 
They announced that a map of the colony was in prepara- 
tion, and would soon be placed at their disposal. They 
concluded with the intimation, that confidence in his 
Majesty's grace and favor having been increased by 'the 
assurances of his commissioners, the colony would undoubt- 
edly give further evidence of its attachment to the king, 
" according as it was bound by its patent." 

To these general assurances the commissioners rejoined 
in an equally general manner ; again expressing a hope 
that the royal letter of 166^, "which had so long slept 
in some hands," would at length receive such considera- 
tion, that the general court, by " practical assertions of 
duty," would give his Majesty satisfaction. They quickly 
followed up this rejoinder by communicating the great 
body of their instructions, which were, in brief, to inquire 
into the condition of the neighboring Indian princes, and 
to ascertain the nature of the treaties that had been made 
with them; to inquire into the frame of government, civil 
and ecclesiastical ; the taxes and impositions ; the ship- 
ping, the militia, and tlie fortified towns and ports ; to 
inquire whether any persons attainted of high treason 
had been entertained in the colony, and, if they still re- 
sided there, to cause their inmiediate apprehension ; to 
inquire whether the act of navigation had been duly 
observed ; and to cause justice to be done in some indi- 
vidual cases of hardship, which had come to his Majesty's 
notice. But these instructions, which were levelled at 
the supposed usurpations of Massachusetts, were not 
unaccompanied by proofs of the king's interest in their 
welfare. For Charles, or his advisers, beholding with 
aduiiration the genius which had done so nmch for the 



AGAINST THE CROWN. 309 

Puritan Commonwealth,^ directed the commissioners also part 
to inquire into the progress made for the establishment ■-'-> — 
of schools, and the conversion of infidels, which the king 
" hoped would draw a blessing upon all their other under- 
takings." 

These w^re the principal instructions given to the com- 
missioners, and, to render the unpleasant discharge of 
such duties less forbidding, they were expressly com- 
manded not to listen to accusations against men who had 
been in office, except they were preferred by persons of 
jequal condition ; and that, as regarded magistrates, they 
should give ear to no complaints, unless in cases where 
the charter had been violated, or the principles of equity 
plainly disregarded. Yet, to carry into full effect their 
commission, it was obvious that they were to sit as a 
tribunal, before which must appear, not the Common- 
wealth of Massachusetts, but the Corporation of Massa- 
chusetts Bay. It must appear, like any other defendant, 
to answer for supposed derelictions, stripped of every 
disg'uise, naked as when born into legal existence, pro- 
tected only by the merits of well doing. Upon our char- 
ter we stand, said the colony ; by the charter alone shall 
you be judged, replied the king. 

But an objection was at once raised to this court of 
commissioners. We are willing- to account to his Maj- 
esty, wherever he requires it, said the deputies ; but it 
will be an enormous burden if the colony must stand on 
a level with every criminal upon whom it has passed 
sentence at " the bar of another tribunal." You are but 
a corporation, returned the commissioners, in substance, 
composed of persons who owe allegiance to Charles, as 

1 " The king having taken abun- colony herein, which he hoped would 
dant satisfaction in the accounts he draw a blessing upon all their other 
had received of the designs of the undertakings." Hutchinson. 



310 THE ELDERS CONSPIRE 

his natural-born subjects. Our only object is to ascer- 
tain how far you have misused your corporate powers. 
We claim jurisdiction over you as a corporation, not 
with the intention of depriving you of what you have, 
but as a motive to induce you to adopt what you have 
not. 

These reasons for their authority were strengthened 
by the reply received by the colony about this time from 
Lord Clarendon, in answer to their letter of the preced- 
ing autumn. " I know not what you mean," wrote the 
chancellor, " by saying the commissioners have power to 
exercise government there altogether inconsistent with 
your charter and privileges, since I am sure their com- 
mission is to see and provide for the full and due 
observation of the charter, and that all the privileges 
granted by that charter may be equally enjoyed by all his 
Majesty's subjects." ^ Finding that there was no pretext 
for delay, the general court at length took notice of the 
charges and specifications set forth in the royal instruc- 
tions. They charged the Indians with falsehood, in 
complaining of injuries when they were the aggressors, 
and threw all the responsibility of their ill-treatment, if 
such there had been, upon the Commissioners of the 
United Colonies. They declared that no ])ersons at- 
tainted of high treason had fled to the colony, excepting 
Goffe and Whalley ; that these had already departed, 
and that, innnediately on the receipt of the royal procla- 
mation against the regicides, agents were desj)atched for 
their apprehension. They claimed not to have been 
neglectful of the royal letter of 166^2, averring that the 
court liad openly resolved to bear true faith and alle- 
giance to his Majesty, and to adhere to the privileges 

1 Hutchinson, vol. i. Appendix. 



AGAINST THE CROWN. 311 

conferred by their patent ; that many of all classes had part 
taken the oath of allegiance before leaving their native ' — ^^ — ' 
country, and that the court had ordered the oath, in a 
form prescribed by itself,^ to be administered to all the 
freemen ; that so much of the said letter as referred to 
the civil liberties of the subject had been observed, the 
court only requiring the qualifications of the candidate 
" to be orderly evidenced to them ; " that, as to ecclesias- 
tical privileges, they were governed by the Word of God, 
which has precedence even of a king's letter ; and that 
the navigation laws were, and had been for some years, 
observed in the colony.^ But, with all this subterfuge, 
they could point with feelings of honest pride to the 
college at Cambridge, which, though in its infancy, had 
already been the nursery of science and letters ; to the 
" small fabric of brick," which, reared by the liberality 
of the Society for Propagating the Gospel, now nestled 
under the walls of its more imposing neighbor ; to the 
schools, which were scattered throughout the length and 
breadth of the colony, in w^hich the young Puritan was 
trained to principles of sobriety and virtue. Here, at 
least, was something where concealment was unnecessary, 
and triumph unblamable. 

The commissioners, in their reply, were " sorry to find 
that the court, in interpreting the charter, put more value 
upon their own conceptions than the wisdom of the 
king." To reduce " all the discourses upon this head to 
one question," they asked whether they would acknowl- 

1 In this form, the oath is quali- 1677 that the general court passed a 
fied by being made to derive all its law, ordering "the acts of trade and 
force from the charter, which is navigation to be exactly and punc- 
made paramount to it. See Hutch- tually observed ; " " his Majesty's 
inson, vol. i. p. 222, n., and p. 231. pleasure therein not having before 

2 Facts do not support the general been signified to us, either by express 
court in this assertion, as will appear from his Majesty, or any of his ?nin- 
hereafter, (c. vi.) It was not until isters of state.'''' Colony Laws. 



31^ THE ELDERS CONSPIRE 

^?,^^- edffe the kind's commission to be in full force. To this 

IV. i^ *^ 

''-'~^ — ' inquiry the court declined to make any answer, intimat- 
ing that the commissioners had been commanded not to 
interrupt the charter government, and declaring that they 
were always ready to furnish such evidence as would 
enable them to represent " their persons and actions " to 
the king. The commissioners again requested an un- 
equivocal answer to their question ; and the court, after 
considering the matter two days, returned that it was 
their duty only to interpret the charter, and that it was 
beyond their province " to determine the power, intent, 
or purpose of his Majesty's commission." 

This answer effectually closed the conference. Nothing 
remained for the commissioners but to ascertain how far 
they would be permitted to exercise their authority. In 
the midst of insults and contumely, and thwarted by 
active opposition and slanderous reports, they organized 
their court, and summoned the Corporation of Massa- 
chusetts Bay to appear before them, and plead to two 
cases, in which the said corporation was defendant, one 
of a civil and the other of a criminal nature. But " the 
Lord stirred up a mighty spirit of prayer," and "put 
wisdom and courage into the hearts of his people." ^ 
The generjd court, not content with neglecting the cita- 
tion, j)roclaimed with the sound of a trumpet " their con- 
tempt of the royal court, and that the jurisdiction claimed 
by the representatives of the king was a violation of the 
charter. The commissioners even found that it was 
unsafe for any individual to bring his case before them ; ^ 



^ Roger Clap's Memoirs. 3 In a letter of King Charles, 

2 This was done, says Hubbard, dated in April, i666, he requires 

in order to make the inatter more that all persons be immediately set 

public, and to pre'vent confusion, at liberty, who are imprisoned only 

which otherwise might have hap- for petitioning the commissioners, 
pencd. 



AGAINST THE CROWN. 318 

which closed their labors in Massachusetts. We shall part 
lose no more of our time upon you, said they to the — - — 
general court, but shall refer the whole subject to his 
Majesty, who is of power enough to make himself obeyed 
in all his dominions. The general court then offered to 
adjudicate the mooted cases, and invited the commission- 
ers to be present ; but they declined, with indignation, 
saying that it was contrary to all the laws of Christen- 
dom, that the same person should be judge and party in 
a cause. 

The most glorious, and, at the same time, most inef- 
fectual object of the commission, was to proclaim liberty 
of conscience in the colony, where it of special right 
belonged. Yet no effort made by its members was more 
utterly despised than this. Religious persecutions were 
openly carried on, and the lash did its work with impu- 
nity. The same order of men, who presumptuously and 
rudely interfered with the Saturday evening recreations 
of the commissioners, on the ground that they were in- 
fringements of " the Sabbath," ^ who, by insincerity and 
evasions, thwarted the honest endeavors of King Charles 
to restore the supremacy of the law, also falsified their 
own professions by wanton and reckless persecutions in 
the immediate presence of the messengers of liberty. 
The commissioners, soon after their discomfiture, sepa- 
rated, and retired to the other colonies, having first 
forwarded despatches to the king. While some of them 
were engaged in remodelling the governments of Maine 

1 The commissioners were in the them. It is to be regretted that a 

habit of meeting, sometimes, at the writer of so much religious pretence 

Ship Tavern, in the northern part as Grahame should have allowed 

of the town, on Saturday evenings, himself to make so false a statement 

and enjoying their pipes and punch, concerning the affair. The story, 

which so shocked the Puritans, that as he relates it, (vol. i-p. 338, n. 2,) 

constables were sent forcibly to eject is clear fiction. 
' 27 



314" THE ELDERS CONSPIRE 

CHAP, and New Hampshire, over which Massachusetts had as- 



IV 



snmed jurisdiction during the cisil wars, they were 
interrupted hy a message from the general court. Mho 
protested against these proceedings as a " disturhance of 
the puhhc peace." A rough reply was returned ; and 
Sir Robert Carr, menacingly alluding to the late rebel- 
lion, said that the king's pardon was conditional, and 
depended upon their good behavior. Such was the 
unfortunate termination of this good-humored effort to 
restore the royal authority in Massachusetts. 
Objections It has been objected to the legahty of the commission, 
gaiityof that it was an attempt to supersede the charter. But, 
mission uu- granting that the charter had not been already super- 
seded by the colonists themselves, a very superficial exam- 
ination of the commission will show that it was in the 
nature of an inquisition merely. Some express judicial 
powers were given, but these had reference to individual 
cases of hardship which had been brought to the notice of 
the king. The fact that Nichols was to hold his office 
for life proves nothing, nor, if the principle of survivor- 
ship had been made one of the elements of the commis- 
sion, would the case have been altered ; for its members 
were elderly men, liable to disease and accidents, and it 
was but prudent to provide for contingencies. We send 
our trusty servants to you, was the royal message, to 
settle the complaints that are continually preferred before 
us, and " to the end we may be truly informed of the 
state and condition of our good subjects there, that so we 
may better know how to contribute to the further im- 
provement of their hap})iness and prosperity." Even if 
it be maintained that this was an attempt to visit a civil 
corporation contrary to the rules of the common law, 
which vests such authority in the King's Bench alone. 



AGAINST THE CROWN. SI 5 

yet it is to be remembered that this was an unsettled part 
point so late as the year IJoS, when it was decided after ^ — r^ 
" several days' solemn debate." ^ 

The commissioners never asfain resumed their func- Third royal 

• J, y . letter to 

tions, and the subsequent misfortunes of two of their Massachu- 

-1111 • ^^'^^• 

number were seized upon by the elders as express mani- 
festations of divine displeasure.^ But the temporary vic- 
tory which the Puritan State had gained was the cause of 
perpetual uneasiness ; and while Connecticut and Rhode 
Island, under their newly acquired charters, were se- 
cured in the possession of " the same privileges and 
powers of self-government which they had enjoyed from 
their first settlement ; " ^ while the pilgrims of Plym- 
outh were rendered happy by a letter from Charles, con- 
trasting their " dutiful behavior " with the " contrary de- 
portment " of their refractory neighbors, and promising 
them "constant protection and royal favor;"* the sus- 
pense which was suffered by the people of Massachusetts 
rendered their continued impunity anything but satis- 
factory. " A new cloud is gathering, and a new storm 
preparing for us," wrote Gookins, one of the assistants ; 1666. 
yet the cloud and the storm existed only in their timo- 
rous minds. Charles again addressed a letter to the gen- 
eral court, but not a letter of reproach or menace. He 
no longer addressed them in terms of affection, but, an- April. 
nulling the authority of the commission, he ordered them, 
on their allegiance, to send delegates to his court, two of 
whom were to be magistrates whom he named,^ to the 

1 Case of the College of Physi- pretty harsh usage, they putting a 
cians, cited in Black. Com. vol. I. gag in his mouth, which (it is said) 
p. 481, ch. 18. he threatened to some in New Eng- 

2 Sir Robert Carr was seized with land that pleased him not. Hub- 
sickness as soon as he landed in bard. 

England, which, in a few days, put 3 Pitkin. 

a period to his life. Col. Cart- "^ Hutchinson. 

wright fell into the hands of the ^ Bellingham and Hawthorne. 

Dutch, from whom he met with 



316 THE ELDERS CONSPIRE 

CHAP, end that he might personally hear their arguments in 
^^ — r^ — ' favor of that despotic higotry which would exclude all 
persons but Puritans from the enjoyment of liberty and 
religion. He wished to make it appear to them how far 
he was from the least thought of " invading or infring- 
ing " the royal charter of the colony, although they 
"beheved that he had no jurisdiction over them."^ 
rhe gene- This letter, a copy of which had been " surreptitiously 
by the ad- convevcd ovcr to Massachusetts before the original," ^ 

Ticeofthe /., , ^ 1 1 ^ r 

elders, was laid beiorc a general court, convened expressly tor 

again diso- i i i i i • i i 

beys the the purposc, and the elders were desired to be present 
and to give their advice. Let us obey the king's order 
for conscience sake, timidly advanced some of the pre- 
rogative party. No ! boldly replied others ; for, if the 
king sends for two of the magistrates, he may send for 
ten, and we, with as good reason, obey. Whereas, the 
civil magistrate being the minister of God, for the good 
of the people, none can assert that his absence from his 
charge will promote such good.^ Such had been the 
growth of distrust and suspicion in the breasts of the 
elders, since the unfortunate mission of Bradstreet and 
Norton, that they were unwilling to trust the magistrates 
with the destiny of their commonwealth, and resorted, as 
usual, to a perversion of Scripture, as an apology for dis- 
obeying their sovereign. The liberty party prevailed. 
An address was agreed upon to the king's ministers, 
wherein the authenticity of the royal epistle is artfully 
called in question,** and a doubt intimated whether, in 
any event, the ablest of the magistrates would be able to 



1 Hutchinson, vol. i. App. xix. delivered to them by Maverick, the 

2 Chalmers's Annals, p. 149. royal messenger. In fact, however, 

3 Hutchinson. Letter of Mr. not a member of the court enter- 
Cobbett, cited in Hutchinson. tained any real doubt upon the sub- 

* The only ground for this was ject. See Hutchinson, vol. i. p. 

that a copy only of the letter was 232 and note. 



AGAINST THE CROWN. S17 

explain the position of Massachusetts more fully or 
clearly than had already been done. The court then 
adjourned, first passing a vote of censure upon certain 
citizens of Boston who had petitioned for a compliance 
with the royal command. 

Happily for Massachusetts, wars, domestic troubles, Policy of 

, . . - Massachu- 

and court intrig-ues, for some years, received all the setts during 

* _ ' •' ... the wars 

attention of the king:. The general court, " thinking: it witii Hoi- 

^ ^ . l^ucl and 

the part of good governors, as well as good judges, to Fiauce. 
amplify their jurisdiction," took advantage of the national 
troubles, to resume into their government the colonies of 
Maine and New Hampshire. And the more effectually 
to secure their interests in the settlement of Gorges, 
wherein was manifested considerable opposition to this 
usurpation, they reorganized its militia, and cancelled the 
commissions of the peace which had been issued by the 
royal commissioners.^ But they coupled these acts with 
others which might serve to blind the king. With ad- 
mirable ingenuity, they seized hold of every occasion 
which would enable them to express the sentiments with- 
out incurring the obligations of loyalty. The war with 1664-6. 
the Dutch and French, which called for a great increase 
of the British navy, afforded an opportunity for a gift, 
to the king, of a large number of spars, the freight of 
which alone amounted to sixteen hundred pounds. This 
magnificent present was soon followed by a contribution to 
victual the West Indian fleet, and the great fire in Lon- 
don, which swept the metropolis from the Tower to Temple 
Bar, and left homeless a population of fifty thousand per- 
sons, led to the exertion of a generosity as creditable to 
the heart as to the head.^ These instances of unexpected 

1 Hubbard. ling. Letter of Mr. Seaman to Mr. 

■- The little town of Charlestown Syms and Mr. Shephard, cited in 
contributed, alone, 105 pounds ster- Hutchinson. 

27 * 



1669. 
April. 



818 THE ELDERS CONSPIRE 

liberality were graciously acknowledged by the king, whose 
good-nature and kindness of heart were never wholly ob- 
literated by his habits of vice and self-indulgence. 
Rapid ad- It was affaiu forgotten that the Massachusetts was but 

vance of • rrn i • r- i 

Massachu- a Corporation. The population of the commonwealth con- 
ceits in , •• . . T rr 

wealth and tiuucd to iiicrcase in wealth and numbers. The genius 

population. . ^ 

they manifested for trade and commerce was allowed 
full scope, and the comforts and luxuries of all classes 
were greatly multiplied.^ It made no difterence that the 
price paid for this prosperity was the open violation of 
the law. This sin sat lightly upon the consciences of 
the freemen, now that it had become for their interest to 
question the obligatory nature of statutes which they had 
16 72. 110 share in making. The act obstructing the trade of 
enumerated commodities among the plantations passed 
entirely unnoticed. They had no custom-house and no 
revenue officers. Their ships, free as air, traversed the 
globe. On land, they were extending their settlements 
further east than Maine, and the charter, originally con- 
ferring territory extending from three miles north of the 
Merrimac to three miles south of the Charles, was used, 
like the taurimim tcrr/um of ancient Carthage, to include 
tracts of land almost without limit. "All nations had 
free liberty to come into their ports and vend their com- 
modities, and they presumed to give passports to ships, 
not only belonging to that colony, but also to England, 



1 In 1673, New England con- tions, u'hcthcr from other colonics 

tained a population of 120,000 souls, or from foreign nations. Col. Laws, 

of whom 16,000 could bear arms. Ships of British and all foreign mer- 

and 5,000 persons, merchants and chants were taxed to support their 

planters, were worth, on an average, fortifications, and one penny in 

£3,000 each. Three fourths of the money was levied upon every twenty 

population and wealth belonged to shillings in value, altliough the 

Massachusetts. Chalmers. owners were not represented in the 

'- The government began to de- general court. See Answers of the 

rive steady and permanent revenues Colonial Agents. Chalmers's An- 

from the duties levied on importa- nals, p. 438. Col. Laws. 



AGAINST THE CROWN. 319 

making the world believe they were a free state." -^ part 
As if to revive the smouldering spark of independence, ^ — ■■- — 
the confederacy between the colonies, which had outlived 
the proud hopes of its founders, and had existed, of late 
years, only to settle the quarrels it engendered, was re- 1672. 
newed with the equivocal provision of protection against 
the invasion of "any enemy whatsoever."^ Their aggran- 
dizing policy, as we have seen, at length involved them in 
a war with the natives, the longest and the bloodiest they 
had ever experienced, and which, at one period, menaced 
them with utter destruction. But a righteous retribution 
was soon to follow. The ambition of the elders, and the 
grasping spirit of the freemen had brought Massachu- 1676. 
setts to her culminating point. 

§0 soon as the king found leisure to listen, renewed Fourth roy- 

. al letter to 

complamts agamst Massachusetts reminded mm of the the colony. 
manner in which his last proposals had been treated. 
Mason and Gorges, the proprietors of New Hampshire 
and Maine, directed the royal attention to these helpless 
settlements which were reposing in the embrace of his 
troublesome colony. Charles immediately dispatched the March. 
famous Edward Randolph to Boston, with a letter order- 
ing the general court, within six months, to send agents 
to England, " fully instructed and empowered " to appear 
and answer for the colony. Shall we obey the king, 
asked the court of the elders, or shall we, instead, send 
over our answers in writing? You may send your 
agents to Whitehall, was the reply, provided " they be, 
with the utmost care and caution, qualified as to their in- 



1 Answer of Randolph to the Holland, France, and Spain, arrived 
Committee of Plantations. Hutch- daily in the harbor of Boston, which 
inson's State Papers, p. 496. had now become "a magazine of all 

2 Hazard, vol. ii. p. 521. See, commodities." Cleyborne's Rela- 
also, Cleyborne's Relation. Chal- tion. Chalmers's Annals, p. 433. 
mers's Annals, p. 433. Ships from 



320 



THE ELDERS CONSPIRE 



CHAP. 
IV. 



August. 



167; 



structions, so that they may negotiate this affair with 
safety unto the country." ^ 

An ehler and a deputy^ were accordingly commis- 
sioned by the general court to represent Massachusetts in 
England, being expressly limited in their powers. In 
the hearing which was had before the lords' committee of 
the council, assisted by the Chief Justices of the King's 
Bench and Common Pleas, the claim of Massachusetts 
to New Hampshire and Maine was declared to be un- 
founded.^ All lands extending from three miles north 
of the Merrimac to the province of Maine, together with 
the four towns of Dover, Portsmouth, Exeter, and Hamp- 
ton, were excluded ; the remainder of Mason's claim was 
held to be within the bounds of Massachusetts, and was 
confirmed by the king.* The general court admitted the 
justice of the decision by covertly purchasing from the 
heirs of Gorges the proprietorship of Maine, and by 
reluctantly waiving all right to New Hampshire, which 
was placed under a royal governor. The latter step was 
not taken, however, before they had obtained the opinion 
of the attorney-general. Sir William Jones, which was 
given witli admirable prudence.^ But though the king 



1 Hutchinson. 

2 William Stoughton and Peter 
Bulkley, a singular pi'oof that the 
magistrates, as a body, were losing 
their influence. 

3 Chalmers's Annals, p. 396. 
The judges decided that " the 
boundaries of Massachusetts cannot 
be construed to extend further north- 
ward than three miles beyond the 
River Merrimac." 

■' Hutchinson. Belknap. 

5 To the question whether Ma- 
son's grants, mformally made, and 
unaccompanied by seisin and pos- 
session, were valid to oust about 
fifty years' possession of a title ac- 
quired under a law of the general 



court. Sir William answered : 1/ 
Mason's estate do lie within the ju- 
risdiction of the assembly which 
made this law, and that this assem- 
bly were rightly constituted, accord- 
ing to the powers given by charter, 
then he was bound by the law, etc. 
In 1660, GeoflVey Palmer reported 
to the king, that Robert Mason, 
grandson and heir to Capt. John 
Mason, had a good and legal title to 
the province of New Hampshire. 
Belknap. This opinion was con- 
firmed by Sir William Jones in 
1675 ; but, when retained by Mas- 
sachusetts, "it seems," says Bel- 
knap, " that he altered his opinion." 
Also, Hazard, vol. ii. 576. 



AGAINST THE CROWN. 321 

did not disturb the questionable title acquired by this 
bargain to the seigniory of Maine,^ he was extremely an- 
noyed at the disappointment it caused him, since he had 
been for some time maturing a plan for uniting, by 
purchase, the territories of Gorges and Mason, and be- 
stowing them upon the Duke of Monmouth.^ Mortified 
and offended by this return for all his indulgence, " he 
required them to give up their purchase upon being re- 
imbursed the price," a request with which " they silently 
declined to comply." ^ The act of Massachusetts was 
impolitic ; but, to forestall the king, was in the highest 
degree discourteous, and not the best manner of prepar- 
ing the royal ear to listen to their excuses and evasions. 

Questions about boundaries were therefore but pre- 
ludes to inquiries of a graver nature. Every inch of 
ground gained by the king, in favor of his just rights, 
was disputed with amazing obstinacy, and the least re- 
laxation in his efforts became the signal for fresh en- 
croachments. The navigation laws, the Puritan estab- 
lishments, the disuse of the oaths of allegiance,* the 
absence of the crime of treason, these and other delin- 
quencies ferreted out by Randolph, now established in 1678 
Massachusetts as an inspector of the customs, presented 
a curious knot of difficulties for the agents of the colony 
to unravel. They found themselves, indeed, unequal to 
the task, and soon sent home such assurances, that the 
general court hastened to palliate the anger of the king, 
by marks of partial submission. The crime of high trea- 

1 As a legal question, it was made to "require all persons, as well 
doubted whether a lordship vested in as inhabitants and strangers, to take 
Gorges and his heirs was assignable the oath of fidelity to the country." 
to strangers. The purchase-money All persons who refused were not 
was £ 1,200. to have the privilege of recovering 

2 Grahame. Belknap. their debts in courts of law, nor to 

3 Chalmers's Annals, p. 397. have the protection of government. 

4 In the year 1677, a law was Truth and Innocency Defended, etc. 



Mav. 



822 THE ELDERS CONSPIRE 

CHAP, son now became known to the laws of Massachusetts for 

IV. 

' — Y^ the first time since the transfer of the charter ; the oath 
of allegiance, unqualified by ambiguous expressions, was 
administered to all male persons of sixteen years of age 
and upwards ; and the royal arms were reinstated in 
their legitimate place in all public buildings. With 
greater reluctance, the general court declared that no per- 
son should be hindered from celebrating the ritual of the 
English Church. Even the acts of navigation, which, 
contrary to their former declaration, the general court 
now acknowledged had been constantly violated,^ were 
ordered to be enforced. We violated these laws, said 
the court, in a letter of instructions to the agents, be- 
cause " the subjects of his Majesty inhabiting this colony, 
not being represented in parliament, we apprehended 
them to be an invasion of their rights, liberty, and prop- 
erty." Such was the ease with which the general court 
could alter its relation to the cromi, at one time avowing 
that they were a " privileged place," represented in par- 
liament through the manor of East Greenwich, and, at 
another, to subserve another interest, declaring that they 
supposed they were not aft'ected by laws they had no 
share in making.^ 

The agents urged a fuller compliance with the demands 
of the king. It was still unsafe for the surplice to be 
worn in public, and to say the Church burial-service at a 
grave was the signal for an aftray.^ The number of 
assistants was only eight or ten, and, as the charter 

1 Chalmers's Annals, p. 408. But grossed the acts of trade, when there 

for never more than /'5,ooo a year, were no officers to see them duly ob- 

was the excuse made. served?" Defence of New Eng- 

- Hutchinson. " Is it strange," land Charters, 
asked Jeremiah Dummer, in this 3 See J. Moodey's Letter to Ma- 
connection, rather contemptuously, ther, cited in Hutchinson, vol. i. p. 
"that merchants, whose business is 319, n. 
gain, should have sometimes trans- 



AGAINST THE CROWN. 823 

required eio-hteen, the court of assistants was an illeg-al part 

... . ■* ^^ II. 

body. It still remained impossible for all but " church ' — •< — ' 

members " to arrive at the dignity of freemen. Appeals 
from the courts of the colony were disallowed. " Pine- 
tree shillings " and sixpences, rightly stamped with the 
resemblance of a tree, whose presence is the sure indica- 
tion of barrenness, with the gloss scarcely worn from 
their surfaces, were handed about in the royal circle, and 
examined wuth curious eyes by the king. In short, some 
new exposure was sent to England with every ship that 
left Massachusetts, and some new demand arrived with 
every vessel that entered her ports. It is useless to go 
into the tiresome detail. " By indirect means," the gen- 
eral court was kept constantly informed of the memo- 
rials presented to the committee of the colonies, and the 
secret councils of the king were known in Massachusetts 
in time for defensive preparation.^ The concessions that 
had already been made by the general court were accom- 
panied by repeated days of fasting and prayer ; and as 
the dangers which menaced the state were aggravated by 
the growing immorality of the people, a synod of all the 
elders w^as assembled to ascertain the reason of "the icry. 
Lord's judgments " upon New England, and the remedy 
that was necessary to cause their removal. Had the 
elders, even now, at the eleventh hour, counselled obe- 
dience, the charter would have been saved ; but they 
recommended, instead, a revision of their old platform.^ 
In truth, the deliberations of the synod seemed to give 
fresh life to the wavering disloyalty of the general court. 
The agents of the colony, who, like their predecessors, 
had been convinced, while in England, of the sincerity 
and justice of the king, became unpopular, and were 

1 Chalmers's Annals, p. 148. ~ Hubbard. Mather. 



l\Iav. 



S24f THE ELDERS CONSPIRE 

recalled.^ And though Charles only consented to their 
departure on the express condition that others shoukl he 
sent to succeed them within six months, the general court 
chose rather to falsify the promise of their servants, than 
to yield to the wishes of their sovereign. The great fire 
in Boston, which " half ruined the whole colony," and 
destroyed " a considerahle part of the warehouses helong- 
August. ing to the chiefest merchants in the town," did not dis- 
turb the unconquerable spirit of the elders. So blind is 
prejudice, that they who regarded the nibbling of the 
leaves of a prayer book by mice as an omen of deep 
significance, could not discern the hand of a just and 
righteous God in the calamitous fire which destroyed 
their meeting-houses, and ruined their chiefest merchants, 
the " most woful desolation that Boston ever saw." ^ 

Partial compliances and empty professions marked the 
controversy to its close. Fresh weight was given to the 
royal cause, when Randolj)h, the only collector of cus- 
toms which the crown ever sent to Massachusetts, and 
who had been commissioned by the king to swear the 
governor to observe the act^ of trade and navigation, 
was resisted in the discharge of liis duties. Every mode 
of annoyance was used that ingenuity could suggest or 
power execute. Attachments were brought against him 
and his officers, and he was compelled to deposit money 
in court before he could connnence any legal process ; 
and appeals from the colonial courts to the king were 
stubbornly disallowed.^ By such means as these, Massa- 

1 Hutchinson. Such, at least, ap- whom they thought to have been 
pears to have been the case. Hutch- too compliant." 
inson says that, upon their return, - Hutchinson, vol. i. p. 313, n. 
though no " mark of disapprobation In November, 1676, in August, 
of their conduct was shown by the 1679, and in 1682, Boston was vis- 
general court, yet many were dis- ited by great contlagrations. Hub- 
satisfied, especially with Stoughton, bard. 

3 Chalmers's Annals, p. 411. 



AGAINST THE CROWN. 325 

chusetts made this zealous officer her most zealous adver- 
sary. He never tired of ferreting out and disclosing the 
usurpations of the colony, and " was always ready to 
reveal those things which the general court was desirous 
to conceal." ^ Eight times, this indefatigable but ill- 
judging officer sailed from Massachusetts to England, in 
nearly the same number of years, carrying some new 
weapon that he had discovered among the secret treas- 
ures of the colony, with which to enable the king to 
inflict a fresh wound upon the unlawful constitution 
which had been maturing since the transfer of the char- 
ter. His discoveries kept alive the impatience of the 
king, who, though immersed in the intrigues of the cabal, 
and imagining " popish plots," had now too firm a hold 
upon Massachusetts to suffer another relapse. But the 
general court was too well skilled in evasions to under- 
stand the merit of frankness and honesty.^ Each new 
demand from Charles was the occasion of a public fast in 
Massachusetts ; and while the interference of Heaven 
was invoked by these pious acts of humility, while every 
pulpit resounded with the fervid " exercises " of the 
elders, and every phenomenon in the heavens was watched 1680. 
with unutterable anxiety,^ the simple act of obedience was 
withheld. 

The closing act of this prolonged political drama was 
at hand. For twenty years Massachusetts had success- 



1 Hutchinson. terleaved Almanac, in Hutchinson, 

2 "On one point the colonists vol. i. p. 313, n. This comet has 
were determined, either entirely, or been supposed by astronomers to be 
as long as possible, to evade the the same which appeared forty-four 
royal will." Grahame. years before Christ, at which time 

3 In 1680, another comet dis- Julius Ctesar was murdered. It is 
turbed the colonists. " Its appear- supposed also to have been the same 
ance was very terrible ; for, though which caused the deluge. Its nu- 
the head be small, yet the tail is cleus was calculated to have been 
near thirty degrees in length, and ten times as large as the moon, 
ascends almost to our zenith." In- 

28 



326 



THE ELDERS CONSPIRE 



CHAP, fully bearded her sovereign by means unworthy of a 



1G81. 
October. 



religious 



state. The clerks of his privy council were 
in constant pay by her agents, and "served 



retained 

them with true intelligence." The secrets of the court 
were known in Boston, before they transpired in Lon- 
don. Her agents, expert in the mysterious dogmas 
of Puritanism, became equally so in intrigue ; sometimes 
complaining of the parsimoniousness of the general court, 
and yet protected by no scruples about the obligation of 
works, from tempting the fidelity of the king's servants 
by the wages of corruption. To "stop gaps by way of 
presents," and to resort to bribery with those who were 
base enough to be thus bought, such was the diplomacy 
of the Puritan State, and such the corrupt channels, 
which too often conveyed away those moneys, which 
should have been devoted to the grandeur of the nation.^ 
A year and a half had now passed away, and no one 
appeared, as had been promised, to represent the colony. 
The king's offers had been again slighted, ^ and for the 
last time. The Lords Committee of Plantations formally 
addressed the governor and assistants, recapitulating the 
many offences of the colony, from the date of the charter. 
Defend yourselves, if you can, they said in substance, 
but submit you must. You have one of two alternatives 
before you ; either to accept from the king what he may 
propose in your case, or else to go before the stern 
tribunal of the king's bench, and receive there such judg- 
ment as the law will award. On the one hand, the king 
is gracious, and disposed to be indulgent ; on the other, 
the law is strict and uncompromising. If your case 
will bear the investieration of the law of the land, and 
this be your choice, you are entitled to its benefits ; 



1 Hutch. Coll. p. 473. Chal- 
mers's Annals, pp. 412, 413, 461. 



2 Letter of 1680, under the king's 
sign-manual. 



AGAINST THE CROWN. 827 

but if you fear, the results of a legal inquiry, and will part 
cordially appear before the throne, as good and faithful — >-^ 
subjects, the king will lend a favorable ear to your 
defence. But, one of these alternatives you must accept ; 
for if you reject the latter, a writ of quo warranto will 
immediately issue.^ 

What w^as to be done ? Did not the command, with Conflicting 

emotions of 

which this address concluded, to " send agents empow- the eiders. 
ered to submit to regulations of government," mean 
agents empowered to surrender the charter % Where 
could Massachusetts find in her past history any guar- 
antee for her future loyalty ? A retrospect was, indeed, 
forbidding ! But the king's bench was the only alterna- 
tive. At the formidable bar of this tribunal must appear 
the almost forgotten corporation of " The Governor and 
Company of Massachusetts Bay, in New England," and 
the visitatorial authority possessed by the judges of the 
crown did not extend to the remission of forfeitures in 
those cases where the crown was a party. TPie scales 
seemed to be evenly balanced. It would be a painful 
spectacle for the elders to see their old enemies, the 
Quakers, the Anabaptists, and the Familists, triuniphing 
over the downfall of trans- Atlantic Puritanism. It would 
be equally unpleasant to feel that the Church from which 
Cotton and Wilson and Hooker had fled, with a host of 
other worthies, could follow them with impunity to the 
wilderness, repeat its superstitious ritual, and swell the 
notes ^ of its Te Deum^ within sight of their hallowed 

1 Chalmers. Pitkin. Hutchin- it,) without the formality of a quo 

son. So irritated was Charles about ivarranto. Of course, he was ad- 

this time, at the repeated slights he vised not topursue a course at once 

had received from Massachusetts, illegal and tyrannical, 
that he consulted with his attorney - Instrumental music was un- 

and solicitor-general, concerning the known to the Puritan communion 

feasibility of superseding the charter, in Massachusetts. Cotton Mather 

(not constitution, as Grahame has says, that as there is not a word in 



3j28 the elders conspire 

dust. How could they bear to check the commercial 
prosperity of the people, by an unqualified submission to 
the acts of trade and navigation ! And how could the 
magistrates endure to lower their dignity, by ordering 
appeals from their decisions, even to the king himself! 

Actuated by such conflicting motives, the general 
court, at length, sent agents^ to England, but forbade 
them to consent to any proposition which should violate 
the liberties of their constituents, or infringe the provis- 
ions of the charter. Go before the throne, said the 
court, and defend the institutions built up by the piety of 
our fathers, and now in jeopardy on account of the just 
judgments of God upon us, their degenerate descendants. 
While you are engaged in this sacred undertaking, we 
will clothe the colony in sackcloth, and appeal to the 

1682. King of kings. Such was the spirit in which the last 
agents of Massachusetts under the first charter departed 

May. for the court of their sovereign. It was characterized 
by something of patriotism and something of pathos. 
The governor even waived his dignity as a Puritan mag- 
istrate, and condescended to beseech Randolph to do 
nothing at this crisis "to the prejudice of the colony." 
But that zealous officer, little moved by the distress, 
which he believed to spring from disloyal hearts, prom- 
ised to exert his good offices with the king, only on 
condition of " a full submission to his Majesty," and 
folloNved the agents to England, to see that they concealed 
nothing from the scrutiny that the colony was about to 
undergo. 



the New Testament authorizing the 1 Joseph Dudley and Mr. Rich- 
use of such aids to devotion, the aids. Stoughton was at first again 
Holy Ghost docs in effect declare, elected, but two several times he 
" I will not hear the melody of thy positively refused to accept the trust, 
organs." How would this worthy be and Richards took his place, 
shocked at the change now to be seen. 



AGAINST THE CROWN. 829 

When it was found that Massachusetts had refused to part 
authorize her agents to make a full submission to the '^•^- — ' 
king, they were informed that unless their powers were 
speedily enlarged, his Majesty would give orders for the 
issuing of the quo warranto. The agents immediately 
sent despatches to the general court, declaring that " their 
case was desperate," and that, unless authority was con- 
ferred upon them to submit to the king's pleasure, they 
would not be answerable for the consequences. But, 
added they, if the general court prefer to stand upon 
their rights, they will not stand alone. Many corporate 
bodies in England are in jeopardy ; among others, the 
franchises of the city of London, which were granted by 
three, and confirmed by fifteen monarchs of the Planta- 
genet, Tudor, and Stuart dynasties. And though most 
of them have submitted to the king's pleasure, yet Lon- 
don and the Bermudas have refused.^ " Let us die by 
the hand of others, and not our own, " said the elders, on 
the receipt of this intelligence ; and this sentiment, in 
the abstract so patriotic, found a willing response in the 
hearts of the people, who echoed it in enthusiastic terms 
upon the general court.^ But the prerogative party 
prevented the full operation of an impulse so rash and 
hazardous, and a compromise address was prepared by 
the general court, which the agents were to present at 



1 To compare the charters of the justice of the nation. Neal. 

London with the charter of Massa- Charters of London. This exertion 

chusetts was, in this regard, absurd, of power, though " strictly legal," 

The English corporations lost their was in summo jure, and highly arbi- 

chartcrs because of the Presbyterian trary, which cannot be said of the 

influence in their counsels, of which course pursued against Massachu- 

Charles was jealous ; to which may setts. Blackstone. 
be added, in the case of London, a - Hutchinson. Among the most 

charge of illegal exaction of tolls in active of the elders was Increase 

the markets, and the framing of a Mather, who published reasons for 

scandalous petition, wherein they not surrendering the charter. Ibid, 
charged the king with obstructing 
28 * 



330 THE ELDERS CONSPIRE 

CHAP, their discretion, and in which were tendered some slight 
— ^'-^ concessions. But they Avere again ordered to make no 
radical surrender of rights. 

Firm to the last in clinging to their beloved institu- 
tions, the charter government would have expired with 
magnanimity, had its last throes been free from weakness 
and dishonesty. Deception, indeed, was almost second 
nature to the general court ; but one act was yet to be 
committed, for which, more than from any mere duplicity, 
they were to suffer the ridicule of their contemporaries, 
and the reproaches of their posterity. Now that they 
saw the end before them, after a prolonged truancy of 
more than fifty years, and were compelled to look their 
master in the face, and answer for the time in some 
respects so sadly misspent, they endeavored to gain his 
favor by offering him a paltry bribe. The agents were 
ordered not to surrender the charter, but to " tender, for 
his Majesty's private service," the sum of two thousand 
guineas. Let this error, however, be not too harshly 
regarded, which was not spontaneous with the general 
court, but arose from the advice of a false friend.^ It was 
not so much intended as a bribe to procure oblivion of 
the past, as an offer to purchase the control of the future. 
Judgment Although the king made a jest of this insult, he 

against the .•, ii"'ii ^ • t 

charter. seemed to be touched by the earnestness which prompted 
it. The quo zvarranto issued, and, that nothing might 
be wanting to clothe it with dignity, was sent to Massa- 



1 Cranfield, royal governor of New how we are ridiculed by our best 

Hampshire, staying at Boston, on friends at court, for the sham Cran- 

his way to England, proposed this field hath put upon you," wrote 

scheme to the court, and promised Dudley to Bradstreet. Cranfield af- 

his good offices. But though Hub- terwards repented of his treachery, 

bard says he was an " honorable and, in the capacity of collector of 

gentleman," in this case he played, customs at the Barbadoes, endeavored 

as Hutcliinson says, an infamous by his attention to New England 

part. " It would grieve you to see traders, to make amends. Belknap. 



AGAINST THE CROWN. 331 

chusetts in a frigate ; but, with it, was also transmitted a pakt 
royal promise, " that if the colony, before prosecution, ^ — ^ — ■ 
would make full submission and entire resignation to the 
king, he would regulate their charter ^ for his service and 
their good, and with no further alterations than should be 
necessary for the support of his government." The 
magistrates, made up chiefly of the prerogative party, 
were disposed to listen to this last summons from the 
king, and passed a resolution, declaring that, upon " se- 
rious consideration," they would not presume to dispute 
with his Majesty in a course of law, but would submit to 
his pleasure. Not so the deputies. There was no 
flinching with them. Supported by the elders, they were 
equal to the spirit of their former declaration, that the 
glory of Puritanism should not pass away by a suicidal 
act. A fortnight's debate of this momentous question 
served only to strengthen their resolution, and the laconic 
but determined reply was sent up to the magistrates, November. 
" The deputies consent not." Immediate preparations 
were made to meet the impending crisis, and loyal ad- 
dresses were sent to king Charles, in company with 
retainers to counsel to defend the charter. But it was 
without avail ; and that franchise which they might have 
saved, had they in any reasonable degree observed its 1684. 
terms, was soon torn from them by the powerful arm of Trinity T. 
the law.^ 



i Chalmers's Annals. Grahame sufficient notice for twenty years 

has it, "compose their nezv char- past, and should have been prepared 

ter." This writer is never reliable to defend in court what she unjustly 

on such points. usurped 'out of it. Charles's last 

2 It has been thought that the message \^'as received in 1683, with 

judgment in this case was arbitrary, the quo ivarranto ; scire facias is- 

because it issued before Massachu- sued in April, 1684. An al. sci. 

setts had time to appoint an attor- fac. issued in Trinity Term, on both 

ney to defend, etc., after receiving of which nichil was returned. Mo- 

the scire facias. This is highly ab- tion by counsel for Massachusetts 

surd, because Massachusetts had had argued for allowance of time to pro- 




382 THE ELDERS CONSPIRE 

Ere Massachusetts had received formal notice that her 
charter was cancelled, king Cliarles the Second died. 
Whatever the faults of this unhappy prince, however 
darkly the life he led contrasts with that of the first 
Charles, no reproach rests upon his name in the annals 
of Massachusetts. His last message to the people, who 
had wronged his father, and heaped insults upon himself, 
was one of kindness and indulgence. It was like that of 
a fiither to his wayward children.^ There was nothing 
arbitrary in his course towards Puritanism in the New 
World. For twenty years, he bore with it, listening to 
its excuses, forgiving its deceptions, and tendering the 
olive-branch. It was a long period for the endurance 
and patience of an arbitrary monarch. He claimed but 
his equitable rights, in a colony peopled by his subjects, 
supported by national wealth, on national territory. He 
repeatedly offered to preserve the charter, nay, to enlarge 
the privileges it conferred, for among these the right of 
transferring the corporation or of erecting a legislature 
did not exist. And, at last, he was compelled to reduce 
Massachusetts to a palpable dependence upon the crown, 
not by fleets and armies, but by the irresistible power of 
justice ; not because the colony withstood oppression, or 
clung to its charter, but because it claimed exemption 
from laws, which all other subjects, were they peers of 
the realm, were bound to obey, and that, too, by force of 
a franchise perverted from things religious to things po- 
litical. And thus perished the Puritan Commonwealth. 

cure attorney, June 12, and judg- to diminish the infamy of their op- 

mcnt entered up for the king June pressor by sharing it with him." 

18. Bancroft has it that judgment This statement, so disgraceful to the 

was given in Michaehnas Term, hand which penned it, and the heart 

which is an error. which conceived it, is hardly recon- 

1 "Tlie people," says Grahame, ciiable with the attempt to bribe, 

"had acted well, and had now to which the same writer stigmatizes as 

suffer well, and disdainfully refused "unholy exertion." 



AGAINST THE CROWN. 338 

The elders fought the battle to the last, and only sur- part 
rendered because they had exhausted every means of ' — '-— ' 
defence. When we consider the insignificance of so 
small a portion of the British empire, its utter weak- 
ness, and its little service to the mother country, we 
are at a loss .which to admire most, the patience which 
bore with the Puritans so long, or the mingled subtlety 
and resolution which contended for so many years with 
powers so vastly superior. 

The death of the king interrupted plans that were Effect of 
maturing for the government of Massachusetts, and left ment 

1 ^. . P , 1 • 1 T against the 

the airairs oi the colony m abeyance. Letters were re- charter. 
ceived from England no longer addressed to the governor 
or general court, for these had ceased to have any legal 
existence, and King James the Second was proclaimed in April, 
Boston before the magistrates were formally notified that 
judgment had been entered up against them, in favor of 
his deceased brother. "There were all the symptoms of 
an expiring constitution." A feeling of languor per- 
vaded the general court, and many empty seats in the 
House of Deputies spoke eloquently, to the saddened few 
who still met together, of that " golden age of Puritan- 
ism," when Massachusetts claimed tribute from savage 
nations, and dictated laws to New England. The popu- 
lar resentment against a " degenerate magistracy," which 
had advised a surrender of the charter to the crown, was 
manifested by the dropping of names at the elections, dear 
to Massachusetts as associated with all that was glorious 
in her history, and substituting those of humbler origin, 
which were known only by their connection with the 
cause of liberty. The reward was, indeed, worthless 
now, but it was all that the freemen could offer to the 
defenders of Puritanism. Gloomy forebodings filled the 
colony. 



334- THE ELDERS CONSPIRE 



Part III. 



Fears concerning a Royal Governor — Col. Kirk — Dudley's Commis- 
sion — Its Reception by the General Court — Intrigues against the 
Commission — The mild Nature of the Commission and its Govern- 
ment — Colonial System of James II. — Its Merits examined — The 
Arbitrariness of James, compared with the Tyranny !!nder the Charter — 
Arrival of Sir Edmund Andros — Character of his Administration — 
Restraint upon Marriages — Fees for Quitrents to Crown Lands — Levy- 
ing of Taxes — Other arbitrary Acts of Andros — Causes of his Unpopu- 
larity — The Colonists petition the King — Renewed War with the 
Eastern Indians — The humane Policy of Andros, frustrated by the Out- 
rages of the Charter Government — Andros kind as a General — The 
Elders excite Rebellion against him — Political Struggles between the 
Liberty and Prerogative Parties — Andros acquitted by King William — 
Conclusion. 

This period of the liistory of Massachusetts, has been 
seized upon by modern writers as affording a theme for 
Fears con- the severest comment upon the tyranny of the crown, as 

cerning a • i i • • i^ ^^^ • i 

royal gov- contrasted with the spnit of hberty ni the colony. A 
transition was to be made, at once, from the privileg'es of 

Col. Kirk. _ ^ 1 

freedom, to the caprices of despotism. Those who liave 
attentively perused the foregoing pages, will see how 
little claim the Puritan State had to a glory which was 
acquired by Rhode Island alone. They will remember 
how earnestly the magistrates struggled to prevent the 
growing strength of the freemen, how successfully the 
freemen obstructed the acquisition of political rights by 
the people ; and how both magistrates and freemen, en- 
couraged by the elders, pursued a series of religious per- 
secutions, as bloody as they were illegal. Such was the 
nature of the freedom that was destroyed by the jibroga- 
tion of the charter. But what \vas to be substituted for 
this hapj)y creation of Puritanism ? " So eager was 



AGAINST THE CROWN. SSo 

Charles the Second to complete his long-cherished de- part 
sig-ns," and, " as if he purposed to consummate his tyr- ^ — ^ — 
anny and vengeance, hy a measure that should surpass 
the darkest anticipations entertained in New England, he 
selected, as a delegate of his prerogative, the notorious 
Colonel Kirk, whose ferocious and detestable cruelty has 
secured him an immortality of infamy in the histoiy of 
England." ^ It is unfortunate for the reputation of the 
writer here quoted, that he gave his prejudices greater 
play than the truth, and that, in publishing a history of 
the United States, he seemed only to be lecturing his 
countrymen from the elevation of a Scotch pulpit. 
Equally unjust to the king, and to Kirk, is this violent 
denunciation ; and had he examined further than the 
pages of Hume, he would possibly have hesitated, ere he 
endeavored, so recklessly, to blacken the memory of a 
Scotch king, or consigned to an "immortality of infiimy" 
the sullied name of a " soldier of fortune." ^ Colonel 
Kirk was, indeed, selected by Charles II. as the first 
royal governor in New England, but this was before his 
campaign in the West of England, and the supposed 
enormities he there committed. On the accession of 
James, rumor also affirmed the confirmation of his ap- 
pointment by the new king, and even proceeded so far 
as to settle the ship in which he was to sail, and the time 
of his embarkation.^ But this report proved to be 



1 Grahame. HInkley, cited in Hutchinson, vol. 

2 Macaulay echoes Hume, in his i. p. 307, n. Kirk's character evi- 
history, as to the character of poor dently stood fair enough at the time 
Kirk, with additional hard names, he was appointed by Charles, except 
If all that has been said of Kirk be so far as he was a prerogative man. 
true, how did it happen that the pru- In the letter above alluded to, and 
dent and discreet usurper, William, which was written betore " the cam- 
should have appointed him to a sta- paign," Kirk is mentioned without 
tion of honor and trust? This fact any allusion being made to his "ruf- 
Macaulay is at a loss to explain. fianism," etc., which was not the 

3 Letter of Mr. Rawson to Mr. case afterwards. 



836 THE ELDERS CONSPIRE 

CHAP, erroneous ; for Kirk, unfortunately for. himself, was de- 
IV. . . . 

' — ,A^ puted by James to assist in putting down the treason- 
able insurrection of the J)uke of Monmouth. In this 
camj)aign, is laid the scene of his " ferocities " and his 
" ruffianism," and while these delinquencies have little to 
do with the history of Massachusetts, yet, as certain 
writers have dwelt upon them, in order to excite odium 
against the king, who could appoint such a monster to 
govern his meek subjects in Massachusetts, a brief allu- 
sion to the character of this notorious individual will not 
be deemed out of place. Kirk was a zealous Tory, and 
this was a greater sin, in the eyes of Puritans, than the 
absence of " good works." They whose hands were red 
with the blood of slaughtered tribes could have little 
understood the sensations of disgust and loathing inspired 
by wanton cruelty. They dreaded Kirk chiefly because 
he Avas an ardent supporter of the crown. A late 
writer^ has investigated, however, the authorities for the 
hateful character given by historians of Kirk, and his 
testimony, disinterested, and to the point, is too valuable, 
in this connection, to be omitted. "Among party nar- 
ratives, the horrid tale of the bloody Colonel Kirk has 
been worked uj) by Hume with all his eloquence and 
pathos ; and, from its interest, no suspicion has arisen of 
its truth. Yet, so far as it concerns Kirk, or the reign 
of James the Second, it is, as Ritson too honestly ex- 
presses it, ' an impudent and barefaced lie ' ! The simple 
fa(-t is told by Keimet in a few words ; he probably was 
aware of the nature of this political fiction. The origin 
of this fable was probably a pious fraud of the Whig 
party, to whom Kirk had rendered himself odious ; at 



1 D' Israeli's " Political Forgeries and Fictions." Curiosities of Lit- 
erature, \o\. iii. p. 149. 



AGAINST THE CROWN. 337 

that moment, stories still more terrifying were greedily part 
swallowed,-^ and, which Ritson insinuates, have become a ^ — r^ 
part of the history of England. . . . Kirk was a 
soldier of fortune, and a loose liver, and a great blusterer, 
who would sometimes threaten to decimate his own regi- 
ment ; but is said to have forgotten the menace the next 
day. Hateful as such men will always be, in the present 
instance Colonel Kirk has been shamefully calumniated 
by poets and historians." ^ 

So far was James the Second from entertaining any DutUeys 

~ •' commis- 

wish to tyrannize over helpless Massachusetts, that the sion. 
temporary direction of its affairs was committed to 
Joseph Dudley, who had been the agent of the colony at i^"^^- 
the English court, and was the son of a leading Puritan.^ 
With him were associated in office, as a council, several 
gentlemen of the colony, some of whom had been, and 
were, magistrates ; and among whom were to be found 
the venerated names of Winthrop and Bradstreet, of 
Pynchon, Saltonstall, and Stoughton. The colonies of 
Maine and New Hampshire, so long coveted by the 
charter government, were comprised in the commission ; 
and, as if further to gratify the territorial pride of the 
people, the country of the annihilated tribe of the Narra- 
gansetts was also included. The powers delegated to 
the commissioners were mild and equitable ; the chief of 
them being to establish liberty of conscience, and to allow 
of appeals, in all cases, to the king. The commission 
was to be supported by a levy of the taxes previously 
imposed by the general court, for the support of the char- 
ter government. 

1 "The fiction of the warming- the origin of Hume's narrative of 
pan, inclosing the young Pretender, Kirk. 

brought more adherents to the cause 3 Dudley, no doubt, owed his 

of the Whigs than the Bill of office, in part, to the influence of 

Rights." Lord John Russell. lb. Randolph, who warmly espoused his 

2 See D'Israeli for an account of interest. 

29 



court 



338 THE ELDERS CONSPIRE 

CHAP. The commission arrived late in the spring, during- the 
' — Y^ annual session of the court of elections. A copy of his 
oHhe com- appointment was immediately laid, by Dudley, before the 
the peneiai court, " not as a Govcrnor and Company, but as some of 
the principal gentlemen and chief inhabitants of the 
May. several to^vns of the Massachusetts." But while he 
announced this unpleasant truth to his late constituents, 
he also called their attention to the mild and easy terms 
of the commission, hoping that the spirit of this instru- 
ment might serve, in some degree, to relieve the mortifi- 
cation, which they would naturally feel at the loss of 
their corporate privileges, so justly forfeited, and now no 
longer recognized. The assembly was not so easily mol- 
lified. Not all the relief they experienced on learning 
that the affairs of government were intrusted to some of 
their o\\'n number, could allay their resentment against 
Dudley, who had intrigued for his situation with the 
avowed* enemies of Puritanism. They found fault with 
the commission, because it set forth no " determinate 
rule for the administration of justice ; " and because, 
also, " the subjects were abridged of their liberty, in 
matters of legislation and taxes." The one, it was said, 
was too arbitrary, and the other unconstitutional. They 
declared, therefore, that it highly concerned Dudley " to 
consider whether such a commission was safe " for him 
err for them ; but finished by hoping that they should 
demean themselves as true and loyal subjects to his IMaj- 
esty. This dutiful hope was followed by measures for 
secreting all ])apers relating to the charter, and the titles 
to Indian lands, when the assembly adjourned until the 
ensuing October.^ 

Singular inconsistencies are often observable in the 

I Hutchinson. 



AGAINST THE CROWN. 339 

conduct of mankind. The very men who " expressed part 
ioy and satisfaction," when they saw, instead of Colonel ^ — r — 

. . . . . • r I, Intrigues 

ELirk with a reg^iment of soldiers disembarking from the against 

• f 1 1 • 11 ^'^'^ corn- 

ship of war that came on the service of the king, a small mission. 

package directed to Joseph Dudley and other principal 
colonists, soon " grew hardy," and endeavored, through 
the elders, to shake the firmness of the commissioners. 
In this, they were only partially successful. Saltonstall 
and the two Bradstreets alone wavered under this attack; 
the others were firm, and avowed their intention not to 
abuse the confidence of their sovereign. Scarcely a 
week had elapsed since the arrival of the commission, 
and the elders were already plotting for the overthrow of 
a government, which the king had hoped would open the 
way to a better understanding between the mother coun- 
try and the colony ; and the assembly " broke up with 
hopes that, either by some unhappy accidents in the 
affairs of state at home, or some dissension raised by 
their artifices " among the commissioners, they might 
dissolve the new government, and reassume the charter.^ 

But " the persons only, not the government, were Mild nature 
changed." Only two Churchmen were in the commis- mission, 
sion, one of whom soon departed for England ; ^ and emmeut. 
besides three others, who held offices in the militia, the 
whole affairs of the colony were in the hands of the 
Independents. Courts of justice, jury trials,^ even in 
the courts of admiralty, and municipal transactions, were 
continued as formerly. Not a constable was removed, 
not a justice of the peace disturbed. The " former laws 

1 Letter of Randolph to the Arch- given from what were rendered un- 
bishop of Canterbury. Hutchinson, der the former administration. This 

2 Robert Mason. Randolph was could have been no cause of com- 
the only other Churchman. plaint, unless Dudley imported his 

3 Hutchinson says, that as the juries from England, which does not 
juries were returned by the mar- appear to have been the case. 

shal, very different verdicts were 



34<0 THE ELDERS CONSPIRE 

and established customs " remained the only rule known 
in the distribution of justice ; and the Puritan relig- 
ion, in worship and doctrine, continued unmolested. 
Complaints were made that there was no legislature ; 
but there was nothing for a legislature to do. Dudley 
only considered himself " as appointed to preserve the 
colony from confusion, until a governor should arrive."^ 
He had merely taken possession for the king, and, in the 
mean time, the governor and assistants were merged in a 
president and council. Even in the matter of taxes, 
there was no cause for complaint. The executive was 
the same, under a new aspect, and the executive only 
levied the taxes imposed by the general court. Indeed, 
so impressed were the commissioners with the importance 
of a legislative body, that when the provision, made by 
the last general court for the support of the government, 
was nearly exhausted, they urgently represented to the 
king the necessity of a colonial parliament. The moder- 
ate policy of this provisional government, however, was 
entirely unappreciated ; and while Randolph withheld all 
sympathy from an administration, which was kind and 
indulgent to the errors of Puritanism, the people, under 
the influence of the elders, grew each day more dissatis- 
fied with a system based on the ruin of the charter. 

There is, indeed, reason to think that the commission- 
ers were more alive to the sensitiveness of the people 
than mindful of the prerogative of the king, and that 
they endeavored to pay their court to the former, by not 
enforcing with great rigidness the acts of trade and nav- 
igation. Such had been the progress made by Puritan- 
ism in the course of half a century, that the price paid 
for liberty of conscience in Massachusetts was the right 

1 Hutchinson. 



1 



AGAINST THE CROWN. 341 

to acquire wealth by frauds upon the revenue. Had the part 
implied contract been reversed in terms, and liberty of *^-^^ — 
conscience been stifled by the commissioners in favor of 
Puritanism, on condition of a scrupulous observance of 
the laws of trade and navigation, the indignation against 
Dudley might have amounted to positive aggression. 
The wharves in Boston were more numerous than the 
meeting-houses. It was only in the country, where the 
calm routine of rural life favored the permanent influence 
of religious association, that the genius of Puritanism 
still presided in all its early vigor. 

The administration of Dudley did not continue suffi- Colonial 

11 r ^• 11 • • system of 

ciently long for discontent to swell nito mutmy, or James ii. 
intrigue into insurrection. News soon reached the court 
of King James that the provisional government had fallen 
into disesteem, and that its members were courting pop- 
ularity at the expense of the crown.^ Immersed as the 
king now was in his ecclesiastical plans, he immediately 
determined to provide a government for the New Eng- 
land Colonies, which, by gathering their discordant ele- 
ments into one focus, should no longer divide and distract 
his attention ; which, by deriving its life from the crown, 
should have no motive for disloyalty ; and which, by a 
mild and gentle administration of authority, should give 
no just cause for complaint. He determined to merge 
the legislative powers in a numerous council, based upon 
the population of the several colonies, and at their head 
to place, as an executive, a native-born subject, whose 
previous history had proved that he could be trusted, 

1 Hutchinson. Neal. In a let- Stoughton, of the old leaven ; Mr. 
ter written by Randolph, in Octo- Richards, a man not to be trusted ; 
ber, to an English nobleman, he Mr. Hinkley, a rigid Independent," 
speaks in violent denunciation of the etc. In less than six months, Dud- 
leading commissioners. " Dudley, ley, by his temporizing poIic\', had 
our president, is a man of base, ser- made a deadly enemy of Randolph, 
vile, anti-monarchical spirit ; Mr. without conciliating the people. 
■29 * 



34-2 THE ELDERS CONSPIRE 

thous^h three thousand miles away from the throne. In 
this way, it was thought that both the rights of the crown 
and tlie claims of the colonies might be secured, without 
tyranny on the one hand or encroachment on the other. 
Besides, " James II. had a strong sentiment of English 
nationality, and, in consolidating the Northern Colonies, 
he hoped to engage the energies of New England in 
defence of the whole English frontier " against the 
French and the Indians.^ The motive was creditable to 
an arbitrary monarch. Was the plan just, legal, and 
proper "? 
Its merits The Puritan Colonies of New England could expect 
but little indulgence from their sovereign. Massachu- 
setts, after a most unprecedented series of encroachments 
upon the royal authority, had, at length, in the bold spirit 
of defiance, contended for its charter at the bar of a legal 
tribunal, and had failed to show any cause why that char- 
ter should not be adjudged forfeited. The corporation 
was resolved into its primary elements ; and the law 
beheld nothing on the soil which had been pressed by the 
feet of the Pilgrim-Puritans, but a multitude of English 
subjects, without any legal government. The condition 
of the other New England colonies was very analogous ; 
Connecticut and Rhode Island, particularly, having for- 
feited their charters but a few years after they obtained 
them, by violating their terms, and disregarding the 
navigation laws.^ The spirit of resistance was animated 
by the influence of example ; and the agitation of a 
political principle, by the general court of either colony. 



1 Bancroft. See, also, Letter ot" surrendering her franchise, which was 
Mr. Blaithwait to Randolph, in equivalent to Nolo Contendere, and 
Hutchinson, vol. i. p. 332, n. Connecticut unwillingly doing the 

2 i^/o IVarranto was issued against same, after resistance had become 
both colonies, but did not proceed futile. 

to judgment; Rhode Island at once 



AGAINST THE CROWN. . 343 

would raise a shout in all the halls of leg-islation in New 
England. 

The plan formed by the king for correcting this evil 
would have been both just and proper, had it been legal. 
Assemblies, to use his own words, " would be of danger- 
ous consequence, nothing being more known than the 
aptness of such bodies to assume to themselves many 
privileges, which prove destructive to the peace of gov- 
ernment."^ But, true as this royal aphorism is, a prin- 
ciple lay behind it of vital consequence to the liberties of 
the English subject ; and the opinion of Sir William 
Jones, that the king could no more levy taxes upon the 
inhabitants of Jamaica, although a conquered country, 
without their consent in an assembly, than they could 
discharge themselves of their allegiance to the crown,^ 
involves a truth as old as the English Constitution.^ I 
say involves a truth, although, in its broadest meaning, 
'as applied to Massachusetts, it contradicted the tenure of 
colonial lands, the admissions of the colonial legislatures, 
and the maxims of Engflish constitutional law. The 
House of Commons was the only other place, besides a 
colonial legislature, where the right of taxation resided. 
In that body, the people of Massachusetts were represented 
as well as the inhabitants of the Isle of Man. They 
were specially represented through the manor of East 
Greenwich, because they still held their lands by that 
• 

' Letter of the Duke of York to Mass. State Papers. See, chiefly, 

Andres, Governor of New York, Revolution in New England Justi- 

1677. Bancroft. fied, pp. 45, 46. 

2 This language was made use of 3 " A tax granted by the parlia- 

by Sir William Jones to Charles ment of England shall not bind those 

II., concerning the conquered island of Ireland, because they are not 

of Jamaica, although Grahame puts summoned to our parliament." But 

it into the mouth of Jones as a reply if they were expressly named, the 

to James II., concerning the people case was different, because of the 

of Massachusetts. See Address of sovereign legislative power of par- 

the House of Representatives to the liament. Year Books. 20 Henry 

Earl of Shelburne. January 15, 1768, VI. 8. i Henry VII. 3. 



344' THE ELDERS CONSPIRE 

tenure, although the corporation was dissolved. They 
were generally represented by every commoner in parlia- 
ment, whose duties are not local, hut national.^ The 
acceptance of the indulgence bestowed by the charter, of 
being free from all taxes for the space of seven years, 
was an acknowledgment that the property of the corpo- 
ration in New England was subject to the action of the 
English parliament. The subsequent admission, that the 
knights and burgesses of the manor of East Greenwich 
did represent them in parliament,^ was a confirmation of 
this truth. It was also admitted by the inhabitants- of 
Ipswich, who refused to pay the assessments laid by 
Andros, on the ground that " it is against the privilege 
of English subjects to have money raised without their 
own consent, in an assembly or parliament."^ And the 
Bill of Rights, passed in the first year of William and 
Mary,'^ enumerating the oppressive acts of James, added 
to its force, by declaring that the king had assumed and 
exercised a power of dispensing with and suspending the 
laws and the execution of the laws, " without the consent 
of parliament." Indeed, this was an undisputed prin- 
ciple of the age ; and even in the charter of Pennsyl- 
vania, drawn by William Penn, the Quaker advocate of 
1681. civil and religious liberty, we find the right of taxation 
carefully guarded from the prerogative of the crown, by 
an express reservation to the provincial assembly and the 
parliament of England.^ ^ 

After all, the importance of the principle at stake 

1 Burke. torics of the United States. " The 

2 See ante, p. 271. power of congress over the public 

3 Hutchinson, vol. i. p. 327, n. territory," says the late Judge Story, 

4 Stat. I Wm. & Mary, 2, c. 2. " is clearly exclusive and universal, 
^ Bancroft, vol. ii. p. 363. In and their legislation is subject to no 

truth, this supreme power of parlia- control ; but is absolute and unlim- 
ment is analogous to that wliich is ited," etc. Comment, on Const, 
exercised by congress over the terri- Abr. § 668, p. 479. 



AGAINST THE CROWN. 345 

alone rendered this a point of interest, and the principle PAirr 
was equally applicable to the charter government. What ^-^-v — 

•Till/' n T\r 1 • • ' ^ '^^^° arbi- 

right had the freemen oi Massachusetts, sittnig in the trariness of 
ofeneral court, to extort money from that lar^e number of compareri 
persons who were denied the ripht of citizenship ? Yet. tyranny 

. ' under the 

for fifty years, the general court had compelled dissenters charter. 
from Puritanism, men without civil or religious privi- 
leges, to contribute for the support of a system which 
they abhorred. With poor grace, indeed, do complaints 
of " arbitrary power " come from the lips and pens of 
the admirers of Puritanism. Nothing but the vindication 
of that national liberty, which the Puritans neither com- 
prehended nor appreciated, prevents the last of the Stuart 
kings, Romanist as he was, arbitrary as he was, absolute 
as he tried to be, from receiving the unqualified homage 
of the New England historian at their expense. For, in 
other respects than this of the legislature, his system was 
grand and noble as compared with theirs. Although 
" the form of his instructions was arbitrary, their essence 
was altogether favorable to real freedom." -^ Political 
freedom and religious liberty were granted to all alike. 
Even the Indian and Negro began to feel, for the first 
time, that they were human beings ; and they learned 
with gladness, perhaps with surprise, that their sovereign 
valued the security of their lives, as well as that of his 
white subjects, and would regard their slayers as mur- 
derers.^ Except in the restraint of the press, in which 
the example had been set, some years before, by the 
elders, " not one of the instructions " to Sir Edmund 
Andros " expressed a spirit of despotism ; " ^ and even 

1 Chalmers's Annals, p. 421. his instructions in the following 

2 Instructions to Andros. sweeping manner : " He was au- 

3 Grahame. Bancroft sums up thorized to remove and appoint 



S4'6 



THE ELDERS CONSPIRE 



Arrival 
of Sir Ed- 
mund An- 
dres. 

1686. 
December. 



in tliis respect, with more consideration than had been 
shown by the narrow and odious spirit of Puritanism, tlie 
press was, in fact, rarely, if ever, interfered with by the 
administration of Andros.^ 

Seven months after the institution of the provisional 
government under Dudley, Sir Edmund Andros, " glit- 
tering in scarlet and lace," ^ arrived at Nantasket 
Roads. The sober reign of Puritanism was at an end. 
Quakers began to take courage, and slaves even felt that 
they were under the protection of the law.^ But while 
the humbler classes of society rejoiced at the commence- 
ment of a new era, the elders and the freemen were filled 
with dismal forebodings. They beheld the legislative 
and judicial powers vested in a board of counsellors 
who received their appointment from the governor, and 
who v.'ere responsible to the king alone. And though 
the letter of instructions from the king ordered the laws 
then in force to be respected, if not inconsistent with that 
higher respect due to the supreme authority; though it 
ordered commerce to be encouraged, life, liberty, and 
property to be held sacred, none to be promoted to office 
but colonists of moral character, and universal toleration 
of religion to be allowed ; nothing would compensate for 



members of his council, and, with 
their consent, to make laws, levy 
taxes, and control the militia of the 
country. He was instructed to tol- 
erate no printing press, to encourage 
Episcopacy, and to sustain authority 
by force." This partakes rather of 
the nature of libel than of history. 

1 Grahamc. 

2 Bancroft so says, but does not 
give his authority. It sounds well, 
and conceals a sneer. 

^ One of the instructions to An- 
dros was to restrain the excessive 
severity of masters towards their 



slaves. There is every reason to 
think that this humane provision 
was loudly called for. One of the 
earliest acts of Andros was to re- 
buke, sharply, Hinkley, the late 
Governor of Plymouth, and now 
one of his council, for distraining 
the goods of (Quakers, who refused 
to contribute for the support of the 
elders. Would it not be as rea- 
sonable, wrote Randolph, that we 
should rate your colony to pay our 
minister of the Church of England ? 
Hutcliinson, vol. i. p. 319, n. 



AGAINST THE CROWN. 34-7 

the deprivation of that highest privilege of an English paRT 
subject, the right of legislation through his lawfully elected ' — y — ' 
representatives. 

Unfortunately for the royal cause, Andros, though he character 
possessed sound judgment, was afflicted with an irritable ministra- 
temper ; and although he commenced his administration 
with the fairest promises and considerable popularity, he 
had not good-nature enough to withstand the perpetual 
opposition that he encountered at every step. One of 
the earliest measures of the new administration, the levying 
of a tax upon articles of luxury, such as wines, brandies, 1687. 
and beer, to meet an unavoidable deficiency in the rev- 
enue,^ was, from its nature, unpopular, and a cause of 
murmuring. The first blow, however, levelled at his 
government was in Connecticut,^ and the manner in 
which that colony treated his attempts to enforce his October. 
authority, gave him a disgust from wdiich he never recov- 
ered. Among his first acts was an endeavor to restrain Restraint 
tlie latitude which had crept into the community respect- riagos. 
ing marriages. Since the systematizing of the Puritan 
religion, none but magistrates had been allowed to per- 
form this ceremony ; and the elders willingly sacrificed 
this portion of their authority to the anti-Catholic preju- 
dices of their followers, in order to preserve the remain- 
der. But the long period, during which the marriage state 
was regarded in the light of a civil contract merely, had 
led to latitudinarian views ; and one of the earliest laws 
passed by the general court, in the subsequent reign,^ I695. 

^ Chalmers's Annals. Chalmers's Annals, p. 419. In 

2 Under his government were 16S8, New York and the Jerseys 

united the several colonies of Mas- were added by commission, which 

sachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, passed in March. To the French, 

New Plymouth, Pemaquid, and this union would have been formid- 

Narragansett, over which discordant able had it been real, 

elements he was general and vice- 3 Stat. 7 Gul. III. c. 32. 
admiral during the royal pleasure. 



84-8 THE ELDERS CONSPIRE 

was for the "preventing of abominable dishonesty and 
confusion, respecting unlawful marriages." Andros at- 
tempted to correct this evil, by compelling all parties to 
enter into bonds, with sureties, to be forfeited in case 
there should afterwards appear to have been any lawful 
impediment to their marriage. And though he did not 
interfere with the Puritan mode of celebratinof the sol- 
emn rite, this wholesome regulation was regarded as 
grievous.^ 
Feus for Another source of trouble experienced by Andros, 

to ciowu arose out of the condition of land titles. By the abro- 
gation of the charter, the titles to all real estate became 
clouded. The corporation was dissolved, and its prop- 
erty, in strict construction of law, vested in the king.^ 
But, besides this unpleasant reality, the colonists, by 
altering the original character of the corporation, by dis- 
using the corporate seal, and making grants of record 
through the general court, had, for a long period of time, 
been giving worthless titles to the farmers and planters 
of Massachusetts. King James, aware of the immense 
power this gave him, was not disposed to abuse it, but 
directed Andros to grant to the inhabitants " their sev- 
eral properties, according to their ancient records," de- 
manding therefor only a moderate quitrent.^ But this 
insecurity of their estates touched the colonists in a 
tender point. They produced before Andros their care- 
fully drawn deeds, executed with the rude signatures of 
Indian sachems, and the governor, with as much home- 
liness as truth, pronounced them no better than the 
" scratch of a bear's paw." ^ Their consciences could 

1 Hutchinson. "^ Mather. Hutchinson. 

2 Co. Litt. 13 b. 102 b. The 4 Revolution In New England 
expression In vogue was, says Hutch- Justified, p. 21. 

inson, that " the calf died in the 
cow's belly." 



AGAINST THE CROWN. 349 

hardly gainsay the justice of the decree, and, abandoning part 
this ground of defence, they placed themselves upon the ^ — ■ 
force of their records. Again, it was replied, they are 
not "worth a rush."^ Possession was next pleaded; 
but it was answerecl, your possession cannot be pleaded 
against the king.^ Driven from point to point, by the 
acumen of Andros, they finally avowed that their lands 
were held " by the grand charter of God," and jumped, 
at once, from the common law to the Book of Genesis, 
declaring that God gave the earth to the children of men 
to be subdued and replenished.^ 

The slauofhter of the natives was thus the best title the 
colonists had to their estates. Nor did Andros attempt 
to refute this singular plea. Perhaps it served only to 
increase his rigor, for the quitrents demanded in some 
cases were exceedingly disproportioned to the value of 
the estates. They " varied according to circumstances, 
both of persons and estates," the rich paying more, and 
the poor less. Petitions poured in to the governor for 
deeds of confirmation. All classes, from the magistrate 
to the poor husbandman, threw themselves upon the 
clemency of Andros. But, amidst the anxiety of some 
and the despair of others, who was there throughout the 
length and breadth of New England, that thought that 
this might be a righteous retribution for the manner in 
which their lands had been acquired 1 This, at least, 
may serve to moderate our indignation, though it cannot 
excuse the abuse of arbitrary power ; * of which, however, 
there is little evidence. 

1 Rev. In New England Just. p. - Nullum tempus occurrit regi. 

24. Town records were of course Co. Litt. 41. 

strictly worthless, for all the acts of "^ Rev. in New England Just. p. 

the general court, erecting towns, 19. 

counties, etc., were avoided by the 4 When we consider the large 

forfeiture of the charter, even if legal tracts of land acquired by the de- 

in the first instance. struction of the Pequods, the Narra- 

30 



SoO 



THE ELDERS CONSPIRE 



But the invalidating of their titles was not the only 
hardship. " The governor, with four or five of his coun- 

taxes. ° cil, laid what taxes they thought proper," and " this, the 
people complained of as their greatest grievance." ^ Not 
that the expenses of government were great ; on the con- 
trary, the administration of Andros appears to have been 
economical, since the most diligent research, prompted by 
the bitterest zeal, has not been able to produce against 
him the charge of extravagance.^ The " scarlet and 
lace " in which he " glittered," on landing, is the only 
accusation of luxury in his habits, and this appears to 
have been invented. Andros, on his first arrival, had 
promised that, in levying taxes, he would be governed by 
the former rates, and that the only difference should be, 
that the levies would be laid by an executive council, in- 
stead of a general court.^ And there is no doubt that 
this promise would have been observed, had affairs con- 
tinued in their usual condition. But, in " the second 
1688. y^^^' of his administration, the public charge was greatly 

Summer, increased by a war with the Indians ; " * and the new 
burden this entailed upon a country not yet recovered 
from the exhaustion of King Philip's war, was severely 
felt by a people unused to heavy taxes, and who had been 



gansetts, and the Wampanoags, not 
to mention the fact that the deeds of 
the natives were as often given for 
the consideration of " good-will and 
ailcction," as for any other, our an- 
ger at the disturbance of such titles 
becomes somewhat mollified. 

1 Hutchinson. 

- "The charges of government, 
over and above the fees of the sev- 
eral officers, were not excessive." 
Hutch. "The taxes, in amount 
not grievous, were for public pur- 
poses." Bancroft. Grahame en- 
deavors to make out a different 
story, but gives no authorities. 



3 In despotic governments, says 
Montesquieu, there is an equivalent 
for liberty, which is the lightness of 
taxes. Esprit des Lois, b. xiii. ch. 
12. In the next chapter, he asserts 
that taxes may be much increased In 
free countries, since the people, by a 
natural self-deception, imagine that 
the payment of taxes, however great, 
is a voluntary evil which may at any 
time, by an exertion of their pre- 
rogative, cease. Whereas, in des- 
potic countries, power can only be 
stretched without danger. 

4 Hutchinson. 



AGAINST THE CROWN. 351 

accustomed to support their military establishments, in part 
part at least, by the spoils of conquest.^ But this mode > — y — - 
of warfare was now at an end, and when it became 
necessary to raise a military force, Andros represented to 
the king that the revenues of the old government were 
now insufficient, and begged for advice. The king re- 
ferred him to his letter of instructions, and ordered the 
colonies to pay the expenses of wars which had been 
brought about by their own injustice.^ The odium of 
this just decree fell upon the instrument of its execution. 
Yet the manner in which it was enforced shows that the 
governor endeavored to lighten its weight. The amount 
to be raised was ascertained by the council, and it was 
left to the respective towns to determine, through their 
selectmen, the assessment upon each individual."^ 

The other arbitrary acts of this unhappy administra- other arbi- 
tion are summed up in a few words. The governor was J/Andros. 
supreme ordinary, and he and his council, from which 
were selected the judges of the superior court, demanded 
high fees in the discharge of their duties. But it should 
be remembered that the uncertain and fluctuating profits 
thus derived, supported the judiciary of the province. 
There was no real cause of grievance. The salary of 
the governor was paid out of the royal treasury. Not a 
penny was levied upon the pockets of the colonists. But 
even a greater consideration than this was the fact, that 
the towns of Massachusetts were relieved of the burden 
of supporting their representatives in the general court. 
Andros encouraged the formation of a church in Boston, 
and the colonists menaced all tradesmen and mechanics 
who should frequent the services, with arrest or with- 

1 See Declaration of the General 2 See Grahame, vol. i. p. 381. 
Court, in Hazard, vol. i. 427-8. 3 Hutchinson. Pitkin, etc. 
Also Hazard, vol. ii. 34, 540. 



852 THE ELDERS CONSPIRE 

CHAP, drawal of tlieir patronage.^ In return, the governor 
' — r — ' threatened to compel conformity from Casco Bay to 
Long- Island Sound. He demanded one of the meeting- 
houses for the Church services ; but Deacon Frairey ir- 
reverently interrupted Mr. Ratcliffe, while performing 
the burial-service at the churchyard, and prevented the 
last rites of religion from being celebrated over the 
grave of the deceased churchman.^ The writ of habeas 
corpus was denied to John Wise, who was arrested, 
tried, and convicted of sedition ; but then John Wise 
was an elder, who, by his position, had necessarily great 
influence, and he had misused his liberty, by advising the 
people of Ipswich to resist the taxes levied by order of 
the king. He counselled resistance to the government, 
and, when arrested therefor, pleaded Magna Charta. 
Do not think, said the indignant Dudley, that the privi- 
leges of Englishmen will follow you to the ends of the 
earth.^ The selectmen of Ipswich voted to pay no rales, 
until they had petitioned the king, declaring, with much 
truth, that " it is against the privilege of English subjects 
to have money raised without their own consent in an 
assembly or parliament;"^ and Andros, anxious for the 
consequences, ridiculed the opinion by demanding whether 
they really thought Joe and Tom may tell the king what 
money lie may have.^ 
Causes of ^^ thcsc, and all other instances of a like kind, either 
uiarity."^' preserved by the scrupulous care of prejudice, or yet to 
be discovered by the jealous eye of the antiquarian, there 
is much to rebuke in Andros, but more to extenuate. A 
temperate view of his administration will convince the 

1 Letter of Randolph to the Arch- Andros, as having been repeatedly 

bishop of Canterbury. made use of by him. 

'^ Hutchinson, vol. i. 319, n. '' Hutchinson, vol. i. p. 327, n. 

3 Grahame, with his usual reck- 5 Pelt, in Bancroft, 
lessness, imputes this language to 



AGAINST THE CROWN. 



S5S 



impartial mind that the causes of his unpopularity are to ^^?^ 
be sought for rather in the contrast which the Church " — ^-^ 
presented to Puritanism, and which prerogative always 
must present to liberalism, than in any tyranny of the gov- 
ernor. Certain it is, that no arbitrary tyranny can be 
ascribed to Andros, as Governor of New York. His 
administration there was unmarked by a despotic char- 
acter ; and the historians of that province are forced to 
echo the writers of New England, when they attempt to 
prove him a "sycophantic tool," or an "arbitrary tyrant."^ 
So, afterwards, as Governor of Virginia, his character 
was irreproachable. His judgment was sound, his policy 
liberal, his deportment conciliating, and his generosity 
great ; ^ in a word, he was " a good moral man." ^ 
Whatever view, however, be taken of his character as a 
statesman, the weight of indignation should fall on his 
council rather than upon him. Forty persons were asso- 
ciated with him, to advise, to check, to instruct, and to 
mediate.* They all knew the characteristics of the 
people, the wants and the weaknesses of their fellow- 
colonists. Andros was a stranger ; a soldier, moreover, 
and one accustomed to command ; he was a courtier, 
whose bias was in favor of prerogative ; and a Church- 
man, whom the events of the past century had given 
violent prejudices against Puritanism, which, no doubt, 
were increased by the fact that he could not even attend 
the Puritan services without beingf marked out for denun- 



'& 



1 See Manning''s case^ Smith's Randolph farmed his office to one 
History of New York, pp. 42-44. West, and was much disgusted at 

2 Burk's Virginia, vol. ii. p. 316. the extortion of his farmer, who, as 

3 Douglass's Summary, vol. ii. p. he said, rendered the administration 
248. odious by his extortion. But he 

4 Much of the obloquy heaped on intimates that it cannot be helped, 
Andros is more properly chargeable without honest attorneys. See Hutch- 
upon some of his council. Thus, inson, vol. i. p. 321, n. 

30* 



354' THE ELDERS CONSPIRE • 

CHAP, ciation from the pulpit.^ Had his council consisted of 

IV. r r 

>^ — ^^^ counsellors, the harsh features of his character would 
have softened, and, perhaps, have entirely disappeared. 
But they " had more of the willow than the oak in their 
constitutions," and, wavering between the administration 
and the people, they abandoned both, and retired to the 
obscurity of their inland homes. Sir Edmund was thus 
thrown for support upon those members of his council 
who resided near Boston ; and a majority of these shielded 
their cowardice at the board by the complaint, that " the 
governor had three or four of his creatures to say yes to 
every thing he proposed, after which no opposition was 
allowed."^ The candid inquirer will consider the value 
of a defence, the chief merit of which was timidity, 
and whose only force \A'as the accusation of an absent 
enemy.^ 
The coio- X he declaration, by King James, of general toleration 
tion^the throughout the British empire, quieted all fears concern- 
ing the establishment of the Church in New England. 
Happy for Massachusetts that it was so ; for the elders, 
making use of nearly tlieir last opportunity, " preached 
sedition and planned resistance."^ But they were spared 
the infamy of kindling the flames of civil war, by reason 
of the utter disgrace into which Puritanism had fallen ; 
and the unexpected liberality of the king even led them 
to antici])ate some further advantage from his clemency. 
The zealous Increase Mather, whose sacred character 
had not preserved him from the sin of defamation, to 

1 Coit. them publicly, during his adminis- 

- Hutchinson. tration. 

3 These complaints must cither '^ Bancroft. Willard, says this 
have been made sotto I'occ, or after searching writer, " goaded the peo- 
Andros was deprived. For, whether pie with the text, ' ye have not re- 
tyrant or not, it would have been sisted unto blood, warring against 
equally dangerous to have made sin.' " 



AGAINST THE CROWN. S55 

avert the consequences of which he was then suffering part 
vohmtary conceahnent/ was smuggled by night on board ^^^ — ' 
a ship, and, ere the morning dawned, was on his way to April! 
England. Arrived in London, Mather found there 
Samuel Nowell and Elisha Hutchinson, two of the old 
assistants under the charter, who joined with him in 
petitioning the king.^ Although a law against Roman 
ecclesiastics disgraced the statute-book of Massachusetts, 
written in letters of blood, the zealous Puritans did not 
hesitate to ingratiate themselves with the king's confes- 
sor, and to excite that very principle in behalf of Puri- 
tanism, which the latter had denounced as the essence of 
Antichrist. By such means, ready access was obtained 
to the royal ear.^ The petition contained no complaint 
against Andros, but begged that the inhabitants of New 
England might be quieted in the possession of their 
property ; and that no laws might be made, or moneys ^ 

raised there, without the consent of a general assembly. ♦ * 

The former of these requests was readily conceded • by 
James ; but as to the latter he was inexorable. " Any 
thing but that. Sir William," said the monarch to Phips, 
who used his influence in behalf of his countrymen.* 
The wrongs of his father and brother crowded upon the 
king's memory, and obscured his judgment. But the 
answer was not final. Some hope was held out of 
future privilege ; ^ and, in the mean time, a further peti- 
tion was preferred, that, " until his Majesty should be 
graciously pleased to grant an assembly," the council 



1 He accused Randolph of forg- 3 See Chalmers's Annals, p. 427. 

ing a letter from him, and an action 4 Grahame. 

was immediately brought by the lat- 5 " Since your lordships seem to 

ter, in which damages were laid at be of opinion that his Majesty tu/V/ 

five hundred pounds. He recovered not at present grant an assembly," 

costs only. Hutchinson. etc. 

'~ Hutchinson. 



So6 THE ELDERS CONSPIRE 

might consist of considerable landholders in the colo- 
nies, and that all laws should receive the sanction of a 
majority. The petition was unsuccessful. 
Renewed In the mean time, the character of Andros was being- 
the Eastern exhibited in more pleasing colors. During the troubles 
which arose between the English and French, in relation 
to the boundaries of their respective settlements, and 
April, soon after the expedition of Andros in The Rose frigate, 
in which the town of Castine was plundered and partially 
destroyed, the frontiers of the northeast were again 
exposed to the ravages of the Indians, and it became 
necessary to adopt some vigorous measures for the safety 
of the border inhabitants. Knowing that " this barbar- 
ous people had never been civilly treated by the late 
government, who made it their business to encroach 
upon their lands, and, by degrees, to drive them out of 
I all," ^ and considering that the charter administration 

had " treated them with too great severity, if not injus- 
tice,"^ Andros resolved to win the regard of the Indians 
by setting an example of humanity. " Good works and 
small courtesies," he thought, might be more efficacious 
in subduing the savage heart, than gunpowder and gin. 
The liberation of one Indian captive might teach a more 
practical lesson in Christianity, than mountains of bibles 
and myriads of tracts. 

A French trader,^ who had been adopted by an In- 
dian tribe on the Penobscot, was plundered of his stores 
while absent, by the English * settlers in that rude neigh- 
borhood. This outrage seems to have been caused by 
his furnishing the natives with amnmnition ; for the 
English pursued the j)oli('y of preserving an ascendency 

• Letter of Randolph to William 3 y c Baron de Castine. 
Penn, November, 1688. 4 Hutchinson, vol. i. p. 326. 

2 Ihitchinson. 



AGAINST THE CROWN. 357 

over the Indians, by carefully keeping from them fire- part 
arms and powder/ while they liberally bartered fire- ' — r-^ 
waters and tracts. The Penobscot tribe, embracing 
the cause of their injured friend, and instigated by 
him, retaliated, by seizing some cattle at North Yar- 
mouth. The next scene in the opening drama was the 
capture of a party of Indians near Saco, which was met 
by reprisals on some w^hite families at New Dartmouth. 
By this time, the flames of war were lighted from the 
shores of the Penobscot to the mouth of the Piscataqua. 
Andros, who was then at New York, returned to Bos- 
ton, and saved the captive Indians from slavery, by 
ordering their immediate release. Astonished at such 
unusual liberality, the Indians voluntarily returned, in 
exchange, several English captives. The first act of 
Christian warfare in the annals of New England, is 
justly attributable to a Churchman and a Jacobite.^ 

The humane policy of Andros w^as destined to beihehu- 
frustrated by the influence of former outrages. The icy of An- 
infamous treachery of Major Waldron had not yet been tiatej by 
forgotten, and some of the captives taken on that memo- rages of the 

chtii'tGr 

rable occasion, having escaped from their bondage, had govem- 
returned to their tribes to keep alive the perpetual thirst 
for revenge.^ Other wrongs * had since been suffered by 

1 "Whereas the French and Dutch, other occasions, was so contrary to 

and other foreign nations, do ordi- the policy of the Puritans, that they 

narily trade guns, powder, shot, etc., made it a charge against him, accus- 

with Indians, to our great prejudice ; ing him of stirring up the Indians 

it is therefore ordered that it shall not against the English. See Depo- 

be lawful for any Frenchman, Dutch- sitions in Rev. in New England 

man, etc., to trade with any Indian, Justified. 

etc., under penalty of confiscation, 3 Belknap's New Hampshire, 

etc. ; and it shall be lawful for any Letter of John Eliot to Robert 

persdn to make seizure of any such Boyle, 1683. Belknap, vol. i. ch. 

goods, one half whereof shall be for 10, p. 126, n. 

the proper use of the party seizing, 4 These are enumerated by Bel- 
aud the other to the country." June, knap, who says that the complaints 
1650. Colony Laws. are well grounded. 

'^ Andros's humanity, on this and 



3dS 



THE ELDERS CONSPIRE 



October 



Andros 
kind as a 
general. 



the Indians, for which they could obtain no redress ; and 
when Andros puhlished a proclamation, commanding 
them to set at liberty all his Majesty's subjects, and such 
as had been guilty of murder to surrender themselves for 
trial, he was surprised to find that it was treated with 
contempt.^ The exchange of prisoners, he had hoped, 
was a sign of unwilling hostility ; the savage saw nothing 
in this extraordinary act but some ruse for securing a 
fresh supply of slaves. His confidence in the English 
was destroyed forever.^ 

The continued hostilities of the Indians rendered active 
measures necessary. Andros put himself at the head of 
November, eight hundred men, who were impressed for the service, 
and marched through frost and snow into the eastern 
country. It was impossible to complain of the impress- 
ment, for. that was the common mode of raising troops 
under tlie charter.^ But forgetting the memorable Nar- 
ragansett campaign, made in the depth of winter against 
a harmless ally of the Puritan Commonwealth ; forget- 
ting the sufferings of the border inhabitants, who needed 
iinmediate succor ; the enemies of Andros seized the 
occasion to charge him with a design of freezing or 
starving his little army. Unhappily for the credit of 
these rumors, the governor shared all the hardsliips of 
the meanest of bis troops ; and his conduct, during his 
voluntary command, wrung from his soldiers the praise 



1 Hutchinson. Belknap. 

2 According to Grahame, Andros 
was " dis (Traced,''^ (I use his own 
words,) by his humane conduct, be- 
cause it was unsuccessful. And he 
attributes its ill success not to the 
Puritan State, where it alone be- 
longs, but to the " insidious arti- 
fices " and the " suppleness" of the 
I'rench. 



3 Col. Laws. Hutchinson. Not 
only was the impressment of soldiers 
authorized by the general court, but 
also that of laborers for the '' public 
works of the commonwealth," who 
were placed at the mercy of one 
magistrate and an overseer, and were 
tu be paid such wages only as " they 
shall judge the work to deserve." 
1634. 



AGAINST THE CROWN. 359 

of being " a kind and good general." ^ The campaign, 
though bloodless, effected its object. The Indians fled 
into their winter fiistnesses ; and three forts, well garri- 
soned, }3rotected the inhabitants from a fate that many of 
them well deserved.^ 

Whatever were the merits or demerits of the adminis- 
tration of Andros, it w^as soon to close, and to remain a 
byword for centuries, in the schools and histories of 
New England. His enemies could see nothing praise- 
worthy in his loyalty, nothing excusable in his ignorance, 
nothing hopeful in his natural kindness of heart. They 
visited upon him the weakness and the follies of his coun- 
cil, composed of the gentry of the colonies. 

The eastern campaign was scarcely closed, when un- The eiders 
certain and varvinff rumors from England created " a^ebeiiion 

cii^ainstAn- 

general buzzing among the people." It was soon whis- dros. 
pered in Boston that the Prii^ of Orange had landed i689. 
in England, and was actively Engaged in dethroning the "^^ ' 
fated Stuart. A copy of the Dutchman's declaration, 
exhibited in the streets of Boston, inflamed the curiosity 
and excited the hopes of the elders and the people. It 
was in vain that Justice Foxcroft punished by imprison- 
ment the bold revolutionist who brought this " traitorous 
and treasonable libel into the country." ^ '• The preachers 

1 Hutchinson. ' pating the Protestant religion. Per- 

2 The Indians complained that haps Winslow deserved punishment, 
their fisheries had been obstructed, In his deposition, aherward taken, he 
their corn devoured by the cattle of said that he brought news of " the 
the English, their lands patented happy proceedings in England" into 
without their consent, and that they New England, because " he knew 
had been fraudulently dealt with in it would be very welcome to the 
trade. Belknap. people there, and on purpose to let 

3 Hutchinson. The expression, the people understand v\hat a speedy 
perhaps, was not too strong. The deliverance they might expect from 
Prince of Orange accused his father arbitrary power." When the paper 
of endeavoring to enslave his own was demanded of him, by the gov- 
kingdom, after which he would join ernor, he uttered a falsehood, saying 
with the French monarch in reduc- he did not know where it was ; be- 
ing the United Provinces, and extir- cause he feared the people would be 



360 TPHE ELDERS CONSPIRE 

CHAP, had already matured the evil design," and the rebellion 
" — ^ — ' that occurred was " not a violent passion of the rabble, 
but a long-continued piece of wickedness." ^ The elders 
of Massachusetts beheld nothing unnatural in the con- 
duct of Mary and her Dutch consort ; notwithstanding 
the dishonest letters of the one, and the falsehoods of the 
other, which lulled the unhappy father into a feeling of 
security that cost him his crown. Thus to dishonor her 
father and to rob her brother was not inconsistent with 
the code of morals of Mary of Orange, who could sleep 
quietly in the royal palaces of England, while the un- 
happy James was seeking where to lay his head. The 
example set by a Protestant queen was readily imi- 
tated by a Puritan ministry, who loved power more than 
•obedience, and the preaching of revolution better than the 
practice of the gospel. 

No sooner had vagu^rumors expanded into shape 
and outline, than the pe^e rose in a body against the 
administration. Startling reports, originating none knew 
how, that the governor's guards were about to massacre 
the inhabitants of Boston, circulated from mouth to 
mouth, and excited the fury of the populace.^ The zeal 
of the timid was inflamed by the rumor that King James 
1689. had imposed upon the nation a spurious child, as Prince 
of Wales ; that a Popish succession threatened the Eng- 
lish dominion, and that the destruction of the reigning 
dynasty was the only security for Protestantism. It was 
gravely whispered among the populace that Andros was 
about to fire the town at one end, and Captain George, 
of The Rose frigate, at the other ; and that, in the 
smoke and confusion, both were to embark and sail for 



deprived of the news, etc. See Dep- ^ Lambeth MSS. in Bancroft, 
osition of John Winslow. Rev. in 2 Belknap. 
New England Justified, p. ii. 



AGAINST THE CROWN. 361 

France. Little creditable as these motives were to the pari 
intelligence of the people, they effected the objects of the ^ — ^-^ 
demagogues. George was arrested while quietly pur- 
suing his own affairs, and thrust into jail.^ The roads 
leading to Boston swarmed with revolutionists, fresh 
from the communion-tables of the country meeting- 
houses, and eager to show their valor in the cause of 
Puritanism.^ Andros was seized and imprisoned, and 
w^ith him the " public robbers," ^ who had for so long 
a time triumphed over the downfall of the Puritan 
State, and protected Quakers from the rapacity of Pu- 
ritan laws. Several of the most eminent of the liberty 
party associated themselves together as a committee of 
safety, and, by general consent, took the government 
into their own hands. Bradstreet, venerable with the 
weight of more than fourscore years, was brought out 
from the retirement of his second childhood, and his 
gray hairs served to bind the memory of the past to the 
hopes of the future. The enthusiasm was complete 
when a long declaration, prepared by an elder of Bos- 
ton,'* defending the insurrection as " a duty to God and 
the country," was read from the balcony of the town- 
house.^ 

Until the success of the revolution at home had be- Political 

, T , struggles ill 

come certam, it was a delicate matter to arrange the Massachu- 

setts be~ 

provisional government.^ Should they resume the old tween the 



1 See Letter of Captain George ^ Neal. Hutchinson. 

to the Secretary of the Admiralty. 6 Xhe Prince and Princess of 

Chalmers's Annals, p. 469. Orange were not proclaimed, be- 

2 " The country people came cause it was not in their favor that 
armed into the town in the after- the people had been excited to re- 
noon, in such rage and heat that it bellion. Massachusetts, at this time, 
made us all tremble to think what presented the singular spectacle of a 
would follow," etc. Anon. Letter colony without a mother country: 
to the Governor of Plymouth. of a royal province without a king. 

3 Life of Cotton Mather. Chalmers's Annals. 
* Cotton Mather. 

31 



362 THE ELDERS CONSPIRE 

CHAP, charter, or should the committee of safety retain the 
^ — r — ' power in their own hands ? The representatives of the 
aud7ibert7 scvcral towns of Massachusetts met at Boston, and the 
^'^'^mTv question was laid before them. Two days were spent in 
violent dispute. Forty of the fifty-four towns of the 
commonwealth instructed their representatives to vote for 
reassumption ; but the influence of the prerog^ative party 
was strong, and they opposed the measure. On the one 
hand, were again aroused the hopes of independence, 
which had been slumbering in the breasts of the elders 
since the forfeiture of their beloved charter. On the 
other, were lingering fears of consequences, mingled with 
longings for the tra])pings of a royal province. It was a 
conflict between religion and ambition ; between the pride 
of the elder and the pride of the magistrate. Happily 
for the peace of Massachusetts, news soon arrived of the 
proclaiming of King William and Queen Mary ; and 
the representatives, no longer deterred by prudent coun- 
sels or warnings, again assembled, and declared the old 
charter of Massachusetts to be once more the constitu- 
tion of the state, and the guarantee of their freedom.^ 
Andios Enthusiasm of so doubtful a complexion was passed 

by^King" ovcr in silence by King William, who merely ordered 
' '"'""' the government, thus suddenly restored, to continue its 
functions for the ])resent, in the manner most conducive 
to his service, and the security and satisfaction of the 
people. Andros was sent home for trial, by order of the 
king, but, when brought before the privy council, it was 
found that the charges preferred against him were anony- 
mous,^ and, though vouchers were called to attest their 

1 Hutchinson. Mather. Neal. not tyranny, or oppressive taxation, 

2 It is somewhat remarkable, that but " his endeavors to stifle the news 
when the agents were askcii the rea- of the landing of the Prince of Or- 
son of their opposition to Sir Edmund ange, and the imprisonment of the 
and his administration, they replied, person who brought over his decla- 



AGAINST THE CROWN. S6t 

truth, none were forthcoming-.^ In return, Andros retal- I'ART 
iated with such severity upon his enemies, that they were ' — v — ■ 
oWiged to abandon the offensive and to stand dumb before 
charges that were as unexpected as they were genuine. 
At this stage of the examination, the king, in compassion 
to Massachusetts, dissolved the proceedings ; ^ and An- 
dros was soon after appointed Governor of Virginia, 
which honorable position he sustained with credit until 
his death.^ 

And here properly closes this narrative of more than Conciu- 
half a century, of the hopes and fears, the glory and the 
shame, of the founders of the Puritan Commonwealth. 
Their work was soon to pass away forever, or rather to 
develop in a new form, which would have startled the 
primitive pilgrims of the wilderness ; who departed, " la- 
menting with their last breath that they were born too soon 
to see New England in its zenith." The infant republic 
of the West owed its origin to the genius and energy of 
the elders of the Puritan religion.* When a few aristo- 
cratic gentlemen of England consented to leave their seats 
for a new world, and to mingle in the common mass of 
emigrants, the latter encouraged their resolution by giving 
them the authority of an oligarchy. On every question 
between the few and the many, the elders were ever to 
be found with the magistrates, and against the freemen. 
So long as the magistrates were true to Puritanism, the 
elders maintained their authority over the people. But, 

ration." See"Letter of Mr. Cooke," gusting picture of intrigue and du- 

quoted in Hutchinson, vol. i. p. plicity. This is not unlikely. 

350, n. They could not well accuse 3 Hutchinson. Some ot his coun- 

him of disloyalty to his master, or cil were also appointed to distin- 

of inconsistency with his commis- guished colonial offices. Dudley 

sion. was made Chief Justice of New 

1 See Chalmers's Annals, p. 463. York. 

2 Grahame says that the conduct 4 " The chief leaders of the peo- 
of the British Court, on this occa- pie into the wilderness," says Neal, 
sion, presents a confused and dis- " were the Puritan ministers." 



364* THE ELDERS CONSPIRE AGAINST THE CROWN. 

CHAP, ill process of time, we have seen that the magistrates lost 
■^ — r — ' their first love, and, in the form of the prerogative party, 
showed symptoms of a desire to return to the lap of 
their sovereign. Henceforth, the elders were to be found 
with the people, giving them the resolution and courage, 
which, in the golden age of the commonwealth, had 
belonged to another class. The seeds thus planted in the 
people were slowly maturing for a century, when they 
suddenly burst forth and blossomed in gorgeous colors, 
before the astonished gaze of the world. 



CHAPTER V. 

PROGRESS OF THE ELDERS FROM SCHISM TO 
SECTARIANISM. 



Part I. 



Political Religionism — The New England Puritans Politico-Religion- 
ists — The Charter not Puritan in its Character — Antiquity of the 
Church of England — The Saxon Church — Its Relation to the See of 
Rome — Its Happy Influence — Effect of the Danish Invasions — Fall 
of the Scaldic Mythology — Condition of the English Church at the 
Time of the Norman Conquest — Rise of the Papal Supremacy — The 
Papal Dominion a System of Spiritual Feuds — Introduced into Eng- 
land — True Claims of the English Church — Iniquitous Character of 
English Dissent — Absence of any Reasonable Ground for Complaint — 
Dissent, Private Reasoning, in Opposition to Authority — Penal Laws 
levelled at Railing, not at Honest Difference of Opinion — The Con- 
ference at Hampton Court frustrates the Designs of the Puritans — 
Absurdity of Puritan Arguments — Ecclesiastical Policy of James I. — 
Causes of the Increase of Puritanism — It begins to embarrass the 
Government — Causes the Arbitrary Acts of Charles I. — Develops 
rapidly under Abbot's Protection, during the King's Contest with 
Parliament — Growth of Republicanism — Policy of the Royal Gov- 
ernment. 

Those who are familiar with the writiiio;-s of Pro- part 

. . . . I. 

fessor Stuart will remember the phrase, political religion- ^ — y — 

ism. It expresses much in a little compass ; and the fg°|j^'^^^ 

reproach conveyed in its true significance affects, in a 

greater or less degree, all branches of the Church, and 

peculiarly attaches to all schismatical bodies. It is im- 

31* 



ism. 



S66 PROGRESS OF THE ELDERS 

possible to explain the motives of individuals, who perse- 
cute and injure their fellow-men on religious grounds, 
unless they be referred to a love of power. The " unen- 
lightened age " furnishes no apology. The religion of 
love and charity, so awfully exemplified on the cross, was 
the same three hundred years ago as now. It appealed 
as directly to men's consciences, it uttered the same music 
to their moral sense. The Emperor Charles ordered the 
heretics of the Low Countries to be burned alive ; but, if 
they recanted their heresies, he gave them not their lives, 
but the privilege of dying without pain. He feared that 
their loyalty was gone, and that the loss was irretrievable, 
even if they recanted. The Church of England points 
for her martyrdoms to the " Acts and Monuments " of 
Fox ; the Church of Rome retorts upon her sister, by 
exhibiting the " three curious folios " of Dodd.^ But it 
was in the struggle between Catholicism^ and Protestant- 
ism that the latter developed, with tremendous energy, 
the principles of political religionism. In England, dis- 
sent clamored for toleration ; but, no sooner had it 
acquired power, than it cursed the principle of " intoler- 
able toleration." "A toleration is against the nature of 
reformation," it was asserted. " A reformation and a 
toleration are diametrically opposite. A toleration is the 
grand design of the devil — his master-piece." ^ While 
the sword was in the hands of the Puritans and Presby- 
terians, " more of the blood of Englishmen poured like 
water within the space of four years, than was shed in 



1 Church History of England. therefrom. The Church of Eng- 
- By Catholicism is meant not land has never applied it to herself, 
Romanism necessarily, but the prin- or used it in any of her formula- 
ciples and faith of which Rome is ries. Palmer's C'h. History, p. 148. 
but a partial exponent. The term 3 Edwards's A ntapologia, p. 145, 
Protestant belongs properly to the cited in "Truth and Innocency De- 
Lutherans, and the sects sprung fended." 



FROM SCHISM TO SECTARIANISM. 367 

the civil wars of York and Lancaster in the space of four 
centuries." ^ The Long ParHament canted about intol- 
erance and spiritual tyranny, but, when it had resolved 
itself into the state, what so intolerant and tyrannical as ■ 
itself ! That " shameless act of perfidy," as a Scotch 
historian ^ styles the act of uniformity, deprived two 
thousand Presbyterian usurpers of their livings in the 
Church of England ; ^ while, during the reign of dissent 
in that fair island, full seven thousand of the established 
clergy were " imprisoned, banished, and sent a starving." 
Even among themselves, the Protestant sects displayed 
the same spirit of persecution. The Presbyterians, who 
contrived their covenant to dispossess Churchmen of their 
livings, were, in turn, distressed by the Independents, who 
enforced with jealous care their engagement to get rid of 
the Presbyterian incumbents.* 

In the assaults made upon the Anglican Church by New Eng- 
Romanists and Puritans, the latter proved themselves its tans, Poiit- 

-p, . , , . I ico-Relig- 

greatest enemies. Kome aimed merely at restoring the lonists. 
Papal supremacy, but Puritanism thirsted for the destruc- 
tion of church and state. The one had in view the 
restoration of its spiritual power, the other, the ruin of 
the civil and ecclesiastical establishments.^ Romanism 
was compatible with the existence of the monarchy, 



1 Heylin's History of the Puri- an Account of the Clergy of the 
tans and Presbyterians. Church of England." See D'ls- 

2 Grahame. raeli, vol. iii. p. 230. 

3 This act went Into operation 4 D'Israeli, Art. Political Relig- 
on St. Bartholomew's day, and the ionism. 

Presbyterians compared it to that ^ Swift remarks in his Paper, 

day of blood in FVance. They "The Presbyterians Plea of Merit," 

were careful not to remember, says that It was a common charge laid at 

Southey, that the same day had been the door of Scottish Presbyterians, 

appointed for the former ejectment, that they hated the Established 

when four times as many of the Church worse than Popery. He 

loyal clergy were deprived for fidel- assigns as a reason, that the Angli- 

ity to their sovereign. Also Walk- can Church stood between them 

er's " Attempt towards Recovering and power, which Popery did not. 



368 PROGRESS OF THE ELDERS 

CHAP, while monarchy and Puritanism could " no better exist 
^ — ^ together than God and the devil." ^ The truth of this last 
observation may serve to palliate its profanity. Its truth 
was as evident in the New World as in the Old ; on the 
shores of Massachusetts Bay, as on the banks of the 
Thames. The love of arbitrary power was the beset- 
ting sin of our pious ancestors, and soon triumphed over 
its more showy rival, liberty of conscience. Like all 
other systems of dissent, New England Puritanism was 
clamorous for toleration when weak, and deaf to all 
entreaty when in power. It was, perhaps, the best illus- 
tration of political religionism the world has ever seen ; 
because it was confessedly the development of a state 
through a religious medium. The elders used their cov- 
enant, and the magistrates their freeman's oath, to retain 
power over the people ; but the freeman's oath was only 
the political agent of the covenant. Upon the latter M^as 
raised the whole civil structure ; without it, no one 
could be free in this world, or sure of happiness here- 
after. 
The char- To illustrate the truth of the foregoing' remarks, it 

ter not . . ... 

Puritan in mav be wortli while briefly to point out the antiquity of 

its char- *' i-it-»- ^ J 

acter. the Church which Puritanism rashly denounced, and to 
deduce the events which led to Puritan emigration. But 
it is im])ortant to be borne in mind, that the charter was 
not Puritan in its character or orio:in. The erroneous 
impressions conveyed by Puritan writers now pass cur- 
rent for facts, and have been dignified by a prominent 
place in history. In order to settle the point, that the 
transfer of the charter was not illegal, it has been 
assumed tliat it was grante<l for this purpose. In con- 
sequence of this absurdity, the same uninterrupted char- 

1 James I. 



FROM SCHISM TO SECTARIANISM. 369 

acter has been ascribed to the charter from the beginning, part 
and the banishment of the Brownes by Ehdecott has been ^-^' — ' 
placed in the same category with the subsequent persecu- 
tion of Child and Maverick. This is sad work. Ende- 
cott, acting as the superintendent of the company's trad- 
ing post, fell under the influence of the Pilgrims of 
Plymouth, and, imbibing their narrow tenets, became a 
Separatist,* and abused his power by persecuting the 
members of his council who were Churchmen. His 
doings, as we have seen, were entirely unauthorized by 
the company that employed him, which was composed of 
Churchmen as well as Nonconformists. And there is 
abundant evidence hidden under the accumulated writ- 
ings of two centuries, that the religious character of the 
company commenced with that meeting of the stock- 
holders in London, which accepted the overtures of Win- 
throp. 

Religion never makes men stocks, says an old Puritan 
writer.^ The enterprise, so solemn and so irrevocable, 
in which a handful of gentlemen were about to engage, 
was calculated to excite in their minds the most intense 
anxiety. Hitherto they had remained in the Catholic 
Church, into which they had been baptized. This Church 
was national. Its history was identified with all that 
was glorious in the English name and character. It 
had imparted dignity and equity to the laws. Its ritual 
was the familiar language of household worship. Its 
festivals and fasts were the periods for national rejoicing 



1 It is very certain that Endecott would not trouble the settlements of 
was not a Separatist when he left the country with his religious fan- 
England. Otherwise, he would not c\ss, ivithout the leave of the go--ver- 
have received his appointment ; for nor. Hutchinson, vol. i. p. 17. See 
this was made the express ground of ante, p. 16. 
requiring written pledges from Ralph ^ Hubbard. 
Smith, a Puritan minister, that he 



370 



PROGRESS OF THE ELDERS 



CHAP, and mourning. Its articles of faith were, for the most 
' — i- — ' part, pure and conservative ; and, wherever a blemish 
could be detected, it was owing- to the spirit of indul- 
gence towards Puritan prejudice. Its churches and 
cathedrals were the ornament and pride of hamlet and 
city. Its churchyards contained the ashes of friends, 
relatives, and ancestors. No wonder " their bowels 
yearned within them,"^ when they thought of bidding it 
farewell forever. What motive could prompt an under- 
taking so vast, so unusual, so forbidding % Did the spirit 
of ambition lurk in their enthusiastic dreams \ 
Antiquity The Church of England was no phantom, conjured 
Church of uD bv the diseased imacfination of a vicious monarch. 

Lngland. v J o 

Its chants were sung before the barbarians of the North 
had swept like a tempest over the fertile provinces of 
degenerate Rome. Tradition, revealing glimpses of truth 
through the darkness of those early ages, still delights 
to recount how the great Tentmaker himself carried the 
laws of Christianity not only to the Romans, but also to 
the Scythians, the Huns, and the Britons.^ Legends are 
still extant which relate how British kings, though vas- 
sals to Rome, voluntarily submitted to a ftobler servitude 
at the font of the Christian Church. And the venerable 
Bede narrates with pride the triumph of the first British 
martyr, ere the light of Christianity had dawned upon 



1 Hubbard. 

2 Theod. Serm. ix. de Leg. torn, 
iv. p. 6io, Paris, 1642. The most 
probable tradition, says Southey, is 
that it was Bran, the father of Ca- 
ractacus, who, having been led into 
captivity by his son, and, hearing 
the word at Rome, received it, and 
became on his return the means of 
delivering his countrymer* from a 
worse bondage. " There is also rea- 
son to belie\e that Claudia, who is 



spoken of together with Pudens by 
the Apostle Paul, [2 Tim. iv. 21, J 
was a British lady of this illustrious 
household, because a British woman 
of that name is known to have been 
the wife of Pudens at that time." 
Loc. Cit. p. 6. Kusebius declares 
that some of the apostles passed over 
to the so-called British isles ; and 
Clement of Rome has the same tes- 
timony. Epis. ad Corinth, sec. 5. 



FROM SCHISM TO SECTARIANISM. S7I 

the hearts of the Pagan masters of the world.^ Certain part 
it is that the sacred fires of the Druids, that mysterious ^- — - 
priesthood of ancient Britain, were quenched by tlie foun- 
tains of living water that poured upon the Gentile world 
from the hills and plains of Judea. We know not cer- 
tainly who were the agents that dared first to confront 
the Bards and the Druids of Britain ; but we may well 
be content with the knowledge, that bishops represented 
the Anglican Church in the ecclesiastical councils of the 
fourth century,^ and that they were strangers to the 
authority of the Bishop of Rome.'^ 

The invasion of the Saxons and Angl|te scattered like The Saxou 
chaff the numerous kings of the Britons ; and, slowly 447-597. 
retiring before these ferocious tribes, Christianity aban- 
doned its ancient seat, to illumine with a feeble twilight 
the mountains of Wales and the Highlands of Scotland. 
The worship of Odin was substituted for the religion of 
Christ, throughout the fairest portion of Britain. But 
the superstitious and bloody rites, which disgraced and 
polluted the noble Paganism of the Saxons, were soon to 
yield to the gentle influence of Christianity. The saintly 
Gregory, struck with the fair beauty of some English 
slaves,* exposed for sale in the streets of Rome, inquired 
their name and country. On being told that they were 

1 Southey's Book of the Church. Germanus and Lupus, and after- 

2 There is evidence to show that, wards of Severus, is a significant fact, 
at the Council of Aries, A. D. 314, as showing the independence of the 
at the Council of Sardica, 347, and Church, at that period, of Roman 
at the Council of Arminium, 459, influence. No allusion is made, in 
there were bishops present from the account given by Bede, to the 
Britain. Usher's Brit. Ant. Eccl. Bishop of Rome. 

p. 104. 4 Vidit in foro Romano tres pue- 

3 Blackstone's Com. vol. iv. p. ros Anglicos lactei candoris venales. 
104, c. 8. The appeal of the Brit- Such is the testimony of William 
ish Church, in the year 429, to her Thorn, monk of St. Augustine's, 
sister church in Gaul, in conse- Canterbury. See Elstob's Anglo- 
quence of the progress of the Pela- Saxon Homily, ed. 1839, London, 
gian heresy, and which led to the visit p. 8, n. 

to Britain of the Gallican bishops 



372 PROGRESS OF THE ELDERS 

called Angles, he replied that they were rightly called 
Angels, for they possessed their beauty, and it was fit 
they should be their companions.^ Henceforth, to con- 
vert the blue-eyed denizens of England became the 
ardent desire of Gregory the Great. His elevation to 
the See of Rome, which shortly afterwards followed, 
served to increase his interest in the welfare of these 
benighted people ; and, soon after, a band of missionaries, 
598. headed by Augustine, as abbot, issued from the gates of 
the Christian capital, in 'quest of the northern island. 
The labors of a few defenceless monks were crowned 
with singular a^uccess. The religion thus brought in, 
whose ceremonial alone rendered it peculiarly attractive,^ 
soon found its way to the heathen heart ; moreover, the 
rude warriors "admired the simplicity" of the mission- 
aries, and the " sweetness of their heavenly doctrine." ^ 
And Augustine, consecrated " Archbishop of the Eng- 
lish," by Virgilius, Archbishop of Aries, became the 
founder of the Metropolitan See of Canterbury. 
Its relation Christianity was early embraced in the kingdoms of 
of Rome. Kent, Esscx, East Anglia, Northumbria, Wessex, Mer- 
ggo. cia, and Sussex. In less than a century from the landing 
of Augustine at the Isle of Thanet, the Saxon Heptarchy 
was ranked among the Christian nations of the earth. 
Great interest in the result of this mission was re- 
tained by Gregory to the close of his life, and his letters 



1 Elstob's Anglo-Saxon Homily. 3 Elstob's Anglo-Saxon Homily. 
Or, as another account has it, he " The ruins of the Saxon idolatry 
broke out with the exclamation, were not stained by the blood of one 
" Non Angli, sed Angeli forent si martyr." Waddington's Hist, of the 
essent Christian!." Church. The abuse bestowed so 

2 Augustine, says Fuller, brought liberally by Jortin and others on St. 
in a religion " made luscious to the Augustine, being undeserved, and 
senses with pleasing ceremonies, so unsubstantiated by any proof, need 
that many who could not judge of not here be recapitulated. 

the goodness, were courted with the 
gaudincss thereof." 



FROM SCHISM TO SECTARIANISM. SJ3 

to King- Ethelbert and Queen Bertha manifest the kind- part 
est regard for the spiritual welfare of his adopted chil- ^ — .-- 
dren. He rewarded the devotion of the royal couple, by 
assuring them that not only was it talked of in the streets 
of Rome, but that it Iiad " reached as far as Constanti- 
nople, to the most serene emperor." ^ But, although the 
Patriarch of Christendom guided with a wise hand the 
early career of the English Church, neither he nor his 
immediate successors undertook the exercise of unwar- 
rantable authority. The incumbents of the Apostolic See 
were justly reverenced as the Primates of the Catholic 
World ; but, as " they claimed no civil authority in Eng- 
land until the era of the Norman Conquest," ^ so in the 
young and crude dioceses of the Anglo-Saxon Church 
they exercised only paternal oversight and care. The 
Patriarch of the West regarded the Metropolitan of 
England as a younger brother,^ and was honored, in 
return, as the elder. " Ordain bishops in the places that 
are subject to your dominion," was the direction of Gre- 
gory to Augustine ; " but receive the pall of the arch- 
bishopric from the Holy and Apostolic See." " To your 
brotherhood, by the permission of Jesus Christ, the 
whole British clergy shall be subject." 

The English Church was scarcely well established, Happy in- 
when it was forced to undergo the severest trials. It tiie Angio- 
had changed the physical as well, as the moral condition ciuncii. 
of the Anglo-Saxons, and made them wiser and better 
men. Every monastery founded in England became the 
seat of learning, the arts, manufactures, and agriculture. 



1 Letter of Pope Gregory to Queen letter from Pope Gregory to Augus- 

Bertha. Regist. Epist. S. Gregorii, tine : " To our most reverend and 

lib. xi. Ep. 29. See Elstob's Anglo- most holy brother Augustine, our 

Saxon Homily, Appendix, p. 70. fellow-bishop, Gregory, servant of 

~ Blackstone's Com. vol. iv. ch. 8. the servants of God." Epist. S. 

3 The following is the style of a Gregorii, lib. xi. Ep. 65. 
32 



374" PROGRESS OF THE ELDERS 

CHAP. The tliirst for war yielded to the love of pieace. Noble 
^ — ,^ youths voluntarily relinquished their ambition for military 
glory, and bore the palm-branch, instead of the sword, 
among the barbarous nations of Germany. Architecture 
commenced her splendid triumphs, and the rude temple, 
" constructed of timber and thatched with reeds," was 
displaced by the more substantial productions of Chris- 
tian art. Morasses were drained, slaves were freed, let- 
ters were taught, and heathen altars overthrown. Every- 
where the holy influence of Christianity changed and 
regenerated the Anglo-Saxon character, and taught a 
nation of barbarians how to live, as well as how to die. 
Kings, in admiration of a system of religion which 
wrought such wondrous changes, were seen by their 
subjects to abandon the throne for the happy retirement 
of the cloister. Queens followed the example of their 
husbands, and in some peaceful convent spent the evening 
of their days, in the exercise of those humble duties 
which religion alone inculcates, or in the calm tranquillity 
of meditation. Whatever progress was made in the state 
or society was due to the influence of the Church. Her 
monasteries fed the poor, healed the sick, improved agri- 
culture, preserved learning, and cultivated the social vir- 
tues.^ Tithes, willingly rendered as a moral duty of 
perpetual obligation, were distributed by the bishop, 
according to " the famous division " of Charlemagne.^ 
To support the clergy, to aid the poor, to entertain the 
stranger and pilgrim, and to repair churches, these were 

1 Southey's Book of the Church. pastoral letters by Simplicius and 

~ First established in France, A. Gclasius, bishops of Rome, as the 

D. 778. Esprit des Lois, b. 31, c. general law at that early period. 

12. Black. Com. b. ii. c. 3. The This division was to maintain bish- 

most ancient division of ecclesiasti- ops, the inferior clergy, and the 

cal revenues, from which, perhaps, poor, and to support public worship, 

this was taken, obtained in the fifth See Gibbon's Dec. and Fall, ch. x.x. 

century, and was mentioned in their n. 107. 



FROM SCHISxM TO SECTARIANISM. 8}5 

the objects to which was devoted one tenth of the increase part 
of lands and husbandry.^ Pauperism was scarcely known • — •'—^ 
in this happy creation of the Church ; and it is a fact 
most significant, that " the cost of hospitality was far 
greater than that of relieving the poor." ^ 

The invasions of the Danes, continued for many years Effect of 

. , . II' • ' ^ th^ Danish 

With various success, resulted in great injury to the invasions. 
Anglo-Saxon Church. The sea-kings of the Baltic, 
whose territory consisted of ships, and whose subjects 
were composed of pirates, whose religion taught that 
death by violence was a sure pledge of future felicity, 
and that that felicity would consist in fighting and was- 
sail, loved piracy as a sport, and welcomed death as the 
entrance upon eternal war. Attracted by the prosperity 
of the country, they swarmed upon the English coasts, 788-829. 
at first committing petty depredations, and afterwards 
growing bolder, until at length the wdiole kingdom was 
reduced to the most humiliating bondage.^ But the 
Church suffered more than the state. In her monas- 
teries, " the only schools in England," were collected her 
books, her treasures, and " the wealth of the surrounding 
country." Upon these noble edifices, the whole fury of 
the ferocious invaders was directed, and, being' first plun- 
dered of their contents, they were devoted to destruction. 
The flames were pitiless. They deprived the Church of 
her richest treasures — books that were without price, 
from their rarity ; and the clergy of England, who had 
been famous for their learning throughout Christendom,* 

1 These tithes were predial, of - Southey's Book of the Church, 
course. Selden, c. 8, § 2. Black- 3 Jt is a little singular that the 

stone says, that the first mention Danes should have first effected a 

made of tithes, in " written English settlement upon the Isle of Thanet, 

law," was in a constitutional decree where Augustine first landed, 
made in a synod held A. D. 786 ; * Charlemagne was advised to 

though he intimates that they were send students to improve themselves 

coeval with the planting of Chris- at York. The students of a school 

tianity by St. Augustine. at Canterbury, founded by the fa- 



376 PROGRESS OF THE ELDERS 

CHAP, became so degenerate, that, on the accession of Alfred, 

— y — ' this learned and accomplished prince complained, that he 

knew not one priest south of the Thames who could 

interpret the Latin prayers of the Church. 

Fall of tiie Yet, though the Church suffered gfreatlv from the 

Scaldic ' & ^ b J ^ ^ 

niythoiotcy. judc assaults of the ferocious Danes, her solidity and 
strength remained unimpaired. She had lost much of 
her ornament and her beauty, but she depended not on 
these for her stability. Faith was more important in 
those simple times than books. It has achieved more 
glorious triumphs than learning, and it was to achieve 
such triumphs for the Anglo-Saxon Church. The ter- 
rible mythology of the Scalds, which contained all that 
could rouse the worst passions of barbarians, was brought 
into juxtaposition with the gentle teachings of Christianity. 
The " obscene and bloody ceremonies " of a barbarous 
superstition were contrasted with the solenni chant, the 
fervid prayer, and the fragrant censer. And more, per- 
haps, than these, the material conquests of the Church 
over Nature, in promoting the arts, in perfecting agricul- 
ture, in short, in developing the thousand improvements 
of civilization, had their gradual effect upon the fierce 
invaders, who learned first to respect, and afterwards to 
coinprehend, the power and wisdom of Christianity. 
And thus, while the Danes conquered with the sword, 
the Anglo-Saxons gained a nobler victory over the human 
heart. Shorn, as the English Church was, of much of 
her comeliness, she retained her faith, which was her 
strength.^ Her missionaries penetrated the vast penin- 
sula of Scandinavia, and erected the cross amid its 



mous Theodore, archbishop, are was Wulstan, Bishop of Worcester, 

stated by Bede to have been as ta- who was deprived by the Conqueror, 

miliar with the ].atin and Greek as on the alleged ground of " insuf- 

with their own tongue. ficiency in learning." 
1 An illustrious instance of this 



FROM SCHISM TO SECTARIANISM. 377 

perpetual snows. At the time of the. Norman Conquest, part 
those reHgions were extinguished which made war their ^^ — .■ — ' 
principle, and which had resulted in so much misery to 
mankind. And in these victories the English Church 
shared with Charlemagne and Otho the Great, with the 
popes and the Benedictines. 

The Saxon dynasty was extinguished hy the battle of Condition 

_ of tlie En^- 

Hastingfs ; and the Church of Enpland, after struofrlino' i'*iiciamcii 
aganist the desolations caused by the Danes, had now to of tiie Nor- 

# "^ , _ man Con- 

commence a more prolonged contest with the novel claims quest. 
of Rome. For so unequal a struggle she was not pre- 
pared. She had resisted but feebly the efforts of St. 
Dunstan, who, as abbot of the new order of Benedictines 
in England, attempted to qualify her national independ- 
ence. The " revolution in monachism," which occurred 
during that age, by reducing the regular clergy under 
one general, and subjecting them to the same discipline, 
rendered the monk a member of his order, and destroyed 
his citizenship. He was no longer an Italian, French- 
man, or Englishman, but a Benedictine. The world 
renounced, the Church became all in all to the member 
of the religious franchise. And this abnegation of self, 
so praiseworthy and so effective for many purposes, was 
liable to abuse when unsupported by knowledge, and 
under the control of ambition. The introduction of this 
system into England the secular clergy opposed ; but 
they had not sufficient power to do so successfully. 
Dunstan was the exponent of the new system of mona- 
chism ; and his zeal and talents, if they could have been 
preserved by one of his miracles for half a century, 
might have completely transformed the Church of Eng- 
land. But the plans which he had formed were inter- ]013. 
rupted by renewed trouble with the Danes ; the monas- 
teries were again plundered ; learning, revived by the 

32* 



878 * PROGRESS OF THE ELDERS 

CHAP, orreat Alfred, and carefullv cultivated by the monks, was 

V. " . 

'^, — ' ag-ain depressed ; and, at the time of St. Dunstan's 

death, the independence of the Church was endangered 
by corruptions borrowed from the Saxons, Flemings, and 
Danes. 

The battle of Hastings was fought not by England 
but by Harold. The defeat was not suffered by the 
former but by the latter, and the right acquired by the 
Conqueror was only to possess the crown. Regarding 
the result of this memorable struggle as the manifest 
decision of Providence in favor of the Norman Duke,^ 
the Primate of England submitted to his claims, on 
behalf of the Church. But though the Conqueror '^ 
brought with him a consecrated banner from Pope Gre- 
gory, the English Church made no decision in his favor 
until after his victory. Then, indeed, she acknowledged 
his authority ; and the Archbishop of York crowned him 
King of England, having first administered to him the 
usual oath to protect the Church and to observe the 
laws. 
Else of the This independent action of the Enolish Church was 

Papal Su- . 1 • 1 • -r. 

premacy. not owHig to a denial of Roman supremacy, but rather 
to the ignorance that any such supremacy existed. Had 
the fact of such supremacy been well ■ estabhshed, the 
decision of the pope would at once have decided the 
Church. But the bishops of Rome, though honored as 
patriarchs,^ were not obeyed as pontiffs. They used cer- 

1 William, in order to spare the '^ The origin of the Roman Pa- 
cfFusion of blood, sent an offer to triarchate is referable to the earliest 
Harold to determine their rival ages. P^irst. It was the wealthiest 
claims by single combat; but Har- church in the primitive days. Second, 
old refused, declaring that he would In the third century, the churches 
leave it to the God of battles to in Italy and the neigliboring islands 
determine. placed theinselves under its super- 

2 The word CowyKfjr, says Black- vision, which was approved by the 
stone, in its fccdal acceptation, signi- Nicene Synod. 3d. Ihc appeals of 
fies no more than acquisition. Vol. St. Athanasius and other orthodox 
ii. c. 4. bishops, when persecuted by the 



FROM SCHISM TO SECTARIANISM. 379 

tain powers of presidency, few or none of supremacy, part 
They acted as the executive of a vast spiritual repubHc, '^ < — ' 
which included all nations and tongues, every variety of 
habits and manners, and which stretched beyond the limits 
of the old Roman Empire.^ 

It was reserved for Hildebrand to modify the character 
of the Holy See. Fired with the ambition of reproducing, 
in a Christian form, the grandeur of Rome, his restless 
spirit, while yet restrained by the robes of an arch- 
deacon, directed the affairs of the world. While Alex- 
ander II. sought tranquillity in the retirement of Lucca 
and Monte-Cassino, those great claims were put forth by ioci-73. 
the Roman See, which shook the thrones of Europe. 
The ring and crosier were demanded of emperors and 
kings, as the emblems of investiture ; and a constitution 
of Alexander decreed the suspension of bishops, whose 
appointments had not received the confirmation of the 
pope.'^ By this double stroke, the independence of the 
churches and nations of Christendom was placed in 
jeopardy ; and, possessed of these golden keys, the tem- 



Arians, to Julius, Bishop of Rome, 1 To illustrate the original inde- 
and the consequent action of the pendence of national churches, a sin- 
Council of Sardica, which conferred gular fact may be adduced. When 
upon the Roman See the power of Gregory IV. entered France for the 
ordering a rehearing, in cases where purpose of encouraging the children 
it thought that bishops had been un- of Louis le Debonnaire in their re- 
justly condemned, etc. Palmer. The bellion, and threatened the bishops 
Bishop of Rome, says Hallam, was of the Gallican Church with excom- 
generally reckoned the first of the munication for adhering to the em- 
patriarchs. Some writers claim that peror, the menace was treated with 
the Roman Patriarchate originally contempt. " If he comes here to 
comprehended all the Western excommunicate," said they, " he 
Churches. Hallam, Mid. Ages, vol. shall depart hence excommunicated." 
i. c. 7. But it is certainly true that Hallam, Mid. Ages, vol. i, c. 7. 
they enjoyed a peculiar precedence 2 This singular usurpation is con- 
when " a thousand bishops adminis- sidered by Hallam to have been, 
tered the Eastern Church, and eight more than any thing else, instru- 
hundred the Western." See Wad- mental in creating the supremacy, 
dington's Hist, of Church, vol. i. Mid. Ages, vol. i. c. 7. 
p. 84. 



380 PROGRESS OF THE ELDERS 

CHAP, poralties and tlie spiritualties, Rome mig-ht well assert a 
^~^t — ' new dominion over the inhabitants of the earth. 
The Papal The machinery by which these principles were put in 

dominion a _ . 

system of operation was entirely of a feudal nature. For two hun- 

spirituul . ■* ^ ^ '' 

feuds. dred years, the military feuds of the northern barbarians, 
who poured into Europe during the decline of the Roman 
Empire, had been established wherever they had settled, 
until at last they prevailed over the whole continent. 
The wisdom of the oath of fealty was demonstrated by 
the admirable working of the system it was framed to 
protect. A scale of dependencies, which descended from 
the throne to the cottage, which embraced all classes and 
all interests, was too solid and comprehensive to be easily 
shaken. The Christian Primates condescended to borrow 
an analogy from Pagan institutions. As the great maxim 
of feudal tenures was, that all lands were holden me- 
diately or immediately of the crown, so the principle was 
asserted, by analogy, that ecclesiastical dignities were 
holden in a similar manner of the pope.^ He was the 
lord to whom homage was to be rendered for the investi- 
ture of spiritual preferment. 
Introduced When William the Conqueror begged the countenance 
land. ° of the pope, in his projected invasion of England, he 
was far from entertaining any notion that the price de- 
manded for this favor would be the independence of the 
National Church. What, then, was his astonishment, 
when he was required to do fealty for liis crown to the 
successor of St. Peter. The demand was treated with 
contempt ; and so exasperated did this prince become 

1 Estates held under the feudal parish was denominated a benefice. 

system were frequently denominated See Blackstone, vol. iv. c. 8. We 

beneficia, because the original dona- find this principle expressly asserted 

tions were supposed to be gratuitous, by the fourth l.atcran Council, A. 

So far was the analogy carried in the D. 1215. 
sj)iritual feuds, tliat the charge t)f a 



FROM SCHISM TO SECTARIANISM. 381 

with the imperious pohcy of Hildebrand, that he prohib- tart 
ited his clergy from leaving the kingdom,^ acknowledging- ^ — .-^ 
the pope, or excommunicating a noble without his con- 
seftt. But these and all other impulsive measures adopted 
by the Conqueror and his successors, to counteract the 
growing power of Rome, were powerless before the 
steady and uniform policy that characterized the Papal 
See. The usurpation of Stephen promoted the subjection 1135-54. 
of the Church. Holding the sceptre by the permission 
of the Roman Court, he yielded, without hesitation, to 
its demands. In the reign of Henry the First, the nom- 
ination of bishops was wrested from the crown. " I am 
the door," said the Holy Father, " by me if any man 
enter in he shall be saved ; he that entereth not by the 
door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, 
the same is a thief and a robber."^ The Papal dominion 
now took firm root, not to be eradicated until after the 
lapse of centuries. The Constitutions of Clarendon and 
the Statutes of Praemunire were alike ineffectual, although 
the usurpations of Rome were never sanctioned by the 
Church or nation.^ The measures of wise kings were 
made abortive by the weakness of foolish ones ; and 
Rome, by her " unwearying politics," ever watchful and 
active, steadily advanced in strength and influence. The 
canon law outstripped the common law in the race for 
power ; and, by the artful policy of the Roman Court,^ 
the ecclesiastical were separated from the civil tribunals, 
and spiritual causes and spiritual rights could alone be 
tried in the former.^ The rapid accumulation of mort- 



J This prohibition was renewed 3 Eccl. Biography. Wordsworth, 

in the reign of Henry II., to coun- vol. i. p. 23. 

teract the attachment of the clergy ^ Sacerdotes a regibus honorandi 

to Rome. Constitutions of Clar- sunt, non judicandl. Decret. Caus. 

endon, ch. iv. ii. qu- i. c. 41. 

2 Southey. ^ Blackstone's Commentaries, vol. 



382 PROGRESS OF THE ELDERS 

main lands strengthened the power of the Papacy, and, 
sinking under the united influence of art and wealtli, the 
true character of the Church of England was hidden 
until the era of the Reformation.^ • 

T"ie I Jjave g-iven this brief outline of history, to show that 

claims of ~ _ •' 

tiie Engiisii t}j(. Church decried by the Puritans was no offshoot of 

Church. 

Popery, though she acknowledged with gratitude her 
indebtedness to the Apostolic See of Rome. Neither, 
on the other hand, did she owe her origin to the haughty- 
house of Tudor. Had either of these been her position, 
there would have been a show of reason for abandoning 
her communion, and submitting to the usurped authority 
of Geneya. But her character was eminently national, 
and her bishops, though assenting to Roman Primacy, 
had, for the most ]}art, denied the Papal Supremacy. 
They claimed a Christian equality, they yielded an Apos- 
tolical precedence. Henry the Eighth but restored the 
Church to her rightful position. The Church of Eng- 
land, in the sixteenth century, was more like the same 
Church in the eleventh, than at any intermediate period. 
She claimed her Catholic as w^ell as her national charac- 
ter. She asserted the principle, that spiritual despotism 
was inconsistent with national dignity, but that sectarian 



iii. c. 5. William the Conqueror and legate a latere by the pope ; 

was the instninient of the Roman because " it nxias derogatory to the 

Church in making this separation, liberties of the English Church.^'' In 

and was probably influenced by the a letter to the king, he declared that 

great numbers of foreign clergy " he was bound to oppose it by his 

whom he brought over. Wilkins, liegance. and also to quit himself to 

l.eges Anglo-Sax. p. 230. God and the Church of this land, of 

1 It is pleasing, during these dark which God and the king had made 

times, to read of such prelates as him go'vernor.'" Bl. Com. b. iv. c. 8. 

Archbishop Chichele ; because it By a paper in the N. E. Hist. & 

shows that though a cloud veiled the Gen. Reg. it seems probable that the 

brightness of the Church, yet now Checkley family, distinguished in the 

and then its true light would burst history of Massachusetts, was de- 

forth. In the reign of Henty V., rived from the same stock as the 

he interfered to prevent the king's archbishop. See vol. ii- p. 349- 
uncle from being made a cardinal 



FROM SCHISM TO SECTARIANISM. 383 

aggression was utterly opposed to Catholic unity and part 
truth. Nor was she to blame for the faults and vices of -^ — .^ — 
her champions. The vilest instruments are often made 
use of by a mysterious Providence to effect the noblest 
results ; and men, though frequently abandoned to the 
dominion of their passions, are, at the same time co- 
workers with God for the cause of truth and righteous- 
ness. The monarch Henry was instrumental in founding 
the English Church, in the same way that the presbyter 
Arius was in building up the Catholic creeds. The faith 
existed before the heresy, but the heresy caused the faith 
to assume the form of law. 

It was while this noble and venerable Church was iniquitous 

clifiVtictGr 

struggling to regain her rightful position that she was of English 
basely betrayed by Protestant deserters. Choosing a 
time when she was least capable of vindicating her 
claims, her recreant children impeded her course and 
disarranged her order. It was in vain that, in the spirit 
of conciliation, she conceded to their shallow prejudices 
more than truth could justify, or posterity can allow. 
They hung- upon her skirts, while she was boldly con- 
fronting a more formidable enemy. They assumed a 
friendly garb, and crept into her ranks. They created 
discord and confusion in her councils. Her venerable 
antiquity was forgotten, in the petty brawls produced by 
ignorance or fanaticism. They professed to regard the 
Church of England as a sect reforming from Catholicity, 
not as a church reforming from Papal dominion. They 
endeavored to introduce into her system the right of pri- 
vate reasoning, instead of the faith she had maintained 
for centuries. And thus, by fraud and treachery, Prot- 
estantism endeavored to overthrow a church that was 
older than the monarchy, which had conferred upon Eng- 
land the blessings of civilization, which had relieved the 



384f PROGRESS OF THE ELDERS 

CHAP, harshness of the common law by the benig-n establish- 

V. . . ' 

^-,^ — ment of equity, and which, above all, had converted a 

nation of barbarous idolaters to the knowledge of the 

blessed Gospel. 
Absence of In truth, the most ardent hater of Romanism had no 
able ground reasonable ground of complaint. The Church had scarce 

for com- 1.11 -11 1 

plaint. achieved her restoration when she commenced a system 
of vigorous reform. In the space of forty years, she 
renounced a monastic clergy, disclaimed the doctrine of 
purgatory, rejected the system of indulgences, removed 
the abuse of images, prohibited prayers to saints, admin- 
istered the communion in both kinds, translated her ser- 
vice into English,^ and abolished a host of relics, charms, 
and superstitions. A convocation of her clergy replaced, 
in their stead, the purest " formulary of doctrine " that 
Scripture and tradition could furnish ; and the liturgies 
of the Greek and Oriental Churches were ransacked for 
all that could embellish and perfect her newly-modelled 
ritual.'"^ Her creeds were Apostolic ; her prayers were 



1 This, however, was a reform councils, and just iverkis ; gyve to 

not so much called for as some ihi seruantis pees that the 'world 

others. Plenty of very early MSS. may not geue,that in our hertis gouun 

are in existence, containing expo- to thi commaundementis , and the 

sitions of the Creed, the Lord's drede of our enemyes putt aivei, our 

Prayer, and the Ten Command- tymes be pcsihle through thi defend- 

ments, etc., in the <vulgar tongue ; ynge ; Bi our lord iesu crist, thi 

thus showing, for the consolation of sone, that avith the lyucth and regn- 

English Churchmen, that their fore- eth in the unite of the holi goost, God 

fathers were neither so ignorant nor 6y alleii'orldis o/ivorldis. So be it.'''' 

so uncarcd for as is often represented. ~ In the reconstruction of her 

In fact, they had in English almost ritual, she did no more than was 

all parts of the service which we done by Augustine, according to 

now possess, excepting the Comma- the sage advice i)f Gregory : "Choose 

nion office; and they offered up, day carefully whatever you find in the 

by day, the same prayers which are Roman, or Gallic, or any other 

daily offered by their posterity, church, most pleasing to God, and 

Take, for instance, the Collect For that which you can collect from 

Peace, as it appears in the English many churches infuse into the 

Prymer of the fourteenth cen- Church of England.'' Bcde's Eccl. 

tury, reprinted by Maskell : " God, Hist. b. i. c. xxvii. Ch. Rev. vol. 

of ivhom ben hooli desiris, right i. p. 350. 



FROM SCHISM TO SECTARIANISM. 3So 

expressed in the purest language of devotion ; her priest- pai: r 
hood, from the primate to the a icar, from the archbishop ^^ — .^ — 
to the youngest deacon, was equally well adapted to 
the dignity of a splendid monarchy and the wants of a 
great people. Palace and cottage alike reposed in her 
maternal embrace. The sacrifices by which these benefits 
were obtained cannot be considered without a shudder. 
Sacrilege and robbery accompanied the renunciation of 
Popery, as fanaticism and error the reformation of 
abuses.^ But enough noble action was exhibited to 
satisfy any mind, not corrupted by the operation of pri- 
vate reasoning or by the influence of selfish ambition. 

Not so, however, thought the disciples of Calvin and Dissent, 
Zuinglius, who returned after the disastrous reign of reasoning, 

■m «- 9 I /* T* • -r> • ^'^ opposi- 

Mary," to commence the era or Private Keasomng. tion to mi- 
There had been, during the reign of Edward VI., indi- 
cations of strange doctrines, which, afterwards, in the 
reign of Elizabeth, assumed the name of Puritantism. 
Some of the royal proclamations of England's " young 
Josiah " were directed against those " who rashly at- 
tempt, of their owai wit and mind, not only to persuade 
the people from the old rites and ceremonies, but also 
themselves bring in new and strange orders, according to 

1 " Private men's halls were hung chiefly by the poor. Previous to 

with altar-cloths, their tables and the Reformation, not a poor-house 

beds covered with copes, instead of disfigured the fertile landscapes of 

carpets and coverlets." " It was a England. Christ's poor were cared 

sorry house which had not some- for by Christ's Church ; but the de- 

what of this furniture, though it struction of the monasteries deprived 

were only a fair large cushion covered them of this resource, and the poor 

with such spoils, to adorn their win- were cast upon the cold charity of 

dows, or make their chairs have parliament and the parish, 

something in them of a chair of 2 Mary was sincere in her relig- 

state." Chalices were used for ion, although guilty of persecution, 

carousing cups, at the tables of the In other respects, she seems to have 

bolder plunderers ; and horses were been a good sovereign, and "'many 

watered in the stone and marble salutary and popular laws, in civil 

coffins of the dead. Southey, vol. ii. matters, were made under her admin- 

p. 115. Perhaps the most perma- istration." Bl. Com. vol. iv. c. 33. 

nent and striking change was felt Southey, vol. ii. p. 138. 
33 



386 PROGRESS OF THE ELDERS 

CHAP, their phantasies." ^ Such attempts were then unorgan- 
' — V — ized and feeble, and the Cliurch preserved the integrity 
of her communion with comparative ease. But the Ma- 
rian exiles were formidable, from their numbers and zeal. 
They opened upon the Church the floodgates of private 
reasoning.^ They declaimed against her faith as super- 
stitious, and her episcopate as anti-Christian. They 
refused to tolerate what Calvin himself had pronounced 
to be " tolerable fooleries." The " beauteous system of 
Geneva," they affirmed, was alone pure and scriptural. 
In our age, such complaints as these would be regarded 
as the effects of ignorant prejudice ; but in an age when 
the principles of religious liberty were not understood, 
they were considered as a contempt of authority. 
Penal laws The Romauists and the Puritans became sectaries in 
railing, not England nearly at the same period. The former, be- 
difierencc causc of tlic excouimunication of Queen Elizabeth by the 
1569. poj)e ; the latter, because they were unable to extinguish 
1572. the Catholicity of the Church. But it was not simple 
nonconformity that led to the enactment of penal laws. 
For these were levelled, not at the offence of holding 
opinions at variance with the doctrines of the Church of 
England, but for railing at the Church and her ordi- 
1582. nances.^ The rise of the Brownists, and the gradual 



1 Hooper, appointed Bishop of forsake the unity of Christ's Church, 

Gloucester, may have been one of and be " overwhelmed in the waters 

these strange innovators. When the of schism, sects, and divisions." 

Six Articles were enforced, he fled " Where did the dissenters from the 

to Switzerland, and brought back Catholic Church learn their doc- 

with him Calvinistic prejudices. He trine ? " asked the Bishop of Ches- 

refused to wear the episcopal habit ter ; " they must needs answer," 

at his consecration. Southey. said he, " from the Germans." "Of 

'- When the bill for restoring the whom did the Germans learn it ? 

supremacy to the crown, on the ac- Of Luther. Well, then, of whom 

cession of Elizabeth, was debated did Luther learn it .' He shall an- 

in parliament, great fear was ex- swer himself," etc. Southey. 

pressed by the bishops, that, in for- 3 Blackstone's Com. vol. iv. c. 4. 
saking the See of Rome, they would 



FROM SCHISM TO SECTARIANISM. 387 

development of political free thinking-, \Yere calculated to part 
cause considerable uneasiness ; for those countries which ^ — ^ — 
had separated from the Catholic Church were republican in 
their character.^ When, therefore, the disciples of Calvin, 
unable to destroy the Church of their ancestors, imitated 
the controversial style introduced by the Reformers, and 
indulged in low and vulgar abuse,^ they were subjected 
to 'the severity of the law. The Court of High Com- 
mission, erected to take the place of the larger jurisdic- 
tion formerly exercised by the pope,^ and to vindicate the 
dignity of the Church, rigidly enforced its authority.* 
Its power to correct abuses, and to reform all manner of 
errors, heresies, schisms, contempts, and enormities, was 
directed towards that class of revilers who endeavored to 
set up " the pattern in the Mount " by the destruction of 
the Church and monarchy.^ And, in truth, some cor- 
rective seemed necessary. Clergymen were thrust from 
their churches for wearing the surplice ; and it was not 
uncommon for fanatics to spit in the faces of Church- 

1 Holland, Geneva, and the Re- her bishops were likened to "bawds," 

formed Swiss Cantons. and were stigmatized as " pestilent 

~ For example: "Your bishops usurpers," and "cogging and cozen- 
are cogging and cozening knaves ; ing knaves ; " when he who occu- 
they will lie like dogs." "Our lord pied the seat of St. Augustine was 
bishops, as John of Canterbury, with held up to execration as a most vile 
the rest of such swinish rabble, are and cursed tyrant, " and the very 
pettyAntichrists,pettypopes, wretch- anti-Christian beast ; " and when 
ed priests." Strype's Whitgift. In the renunciation of all these objects 
addressing Romanists, the style was of Puritan hatred was sealed with a 
similar. For example, referring to covenant, which had for its avowed 
Holy Orders, a Puritan controver- purpose the horrors of a revolution ; 
sialist remarks: "With all our heart then the justice of an insulted na- 
we abhor, defie, spit at, and detest tion began to exert its power. Col- 
your stinking, greasy, anti-Christian lier's Eccl. Hist. Strype's Whit- 
orders." Champney's Vacation of gift. Coit's Puritanism. 
Bishops, etc., p. 122, ed. 1616. 5 Jn the platform set down by 

3 I Eliz. c. I. these new builders, said Parker, we 

4 When the Church was pro- evidently see the spoliation of the 
nounced " Antichrist," her tradi- patrimony of Christ, and a popular 
tions, " filthiness and pollution ; " state to be sought. Southey, vol. ii. 
when her clergy were called " pope- p. 294. 

lings, Antichrists, and dogs ; " when 



388 PROGRESS OF THE ELDERS 

CHAP, men, to testify their abhorrence of conformity. The 
- — y — ' consecrated bread was sometimes snatclied from the altar, 
because in the form of a wafer ; and dangerous maxims 
were circulated, mingled with foul ribaldry and ferocious 
libels. Even the Spanish Armada, whose object was the 
restoration of the Roman Supremacy, did not check the 
assaults of Puritanism ; and it became evident, before 
this formidable expedition could have reached England, 
that Puritanism was a more dangerous enemy. " So 
long as they left what they desired to the Providence of 
God and the authority of the magistrates, they had been 
borne with, except in cases of extreme contempt. But 
now when they affirmed that the consent of the magis- 
trate was not to be attended ; when they combined them- 
selves by classes and subscriptions ; when they descended 
into that vile and base means of defacing the government 
of the Church by ridiculous pasquils ; when they began 
both to vaunt of their strength and number of their 
partisans and followers, and to use comminations that 
their cause would prevail, though with uproar and vio- 
lence ; then it appeared to be no more zeal, no more 
conscience, but mere faction and division." ^ 

The headlong- fanaticism of the Puritans involved 
many loyal subjects and many discreet Dissenters in dis- 
grace ; for though Separation had already commenced 
its unhallowed work, many "scrupulous" persons, actuated 
by timidity, or something worse, preferred the member- 
ship of the Church to sectarian partisanship.^ Noncon- 
formity, leading to such monstrous results, soon came 
itself to be considered a penal offence.^ The sovereign. 



1 This language is Walsingham's, Southey's Book of the Church, vol. 

a minister who uas disposed to re- ii. p. 298. 

gard them and their proceedings '^ Prince, vol. i. p. 235. 

more favorably than he ought. 3 Stat. 23 Elizabeth, c. i, imposes 



FROM SCHISM TO SECTARIANISM. 389 

from jealousy of the Papal dominion, being established part 
as the head of the English Church, the "impossible won- > — y — ' 
ders " of the innovators were considered as treasonable.^ 
The Church had gone far enough in her reforms. She 
had no inclination to surrender her Catholic character, to 
be made the sport of fancy. Her altars, stripped of 
tinsel and superfluous ornament, remained altars still. 
Her liturgy still celebrated the triumph of the saint and 
the martyr. Her clergy, clad in the spotless robes of 
the sacrificial office, retained their character as an apos- 
tolic priesthood. We are, declared an act of parliament, 
at the commencement of the Reformation, " obedient, 
devout, Catholic, and humble children of God and Holy 
Church, as any people be within any realm christened." ^ 
And these continued to be the sentiments of the Church- 
men of England. Free from foreign usurpation, with a 
purified service, with her noble universities, her glorious 
cathedrals, her national characteristics, her devoted priest- 
hood, the Church of England only differed from the 
primitive churches at the dawn of Christianity, as the 
wide-spreading oak, with its robust trunk and massive 
foliage, contrasts with the first feeble shoot of the acorn. 

The principle of supremacy is no more necessary to xhe con- 
Catholicism than that of despotism is to civil govern- Hampton' 
ment ; and, generally, where either exists, it is by usurpa- 



a fine for not conforming to the es- ^ 25 Henry VIII. c. 19. i Eliz- 

tablished religion, a third part of abeth, c. i. 

which was to be for the use of the ^ Jn the act for discontinuing the 

poor ; but the offender was to be sums of money previously paid to 

discharged at any time after the the See of Rome, it is expressly 

complaint, if he made due acknowl- provided that the act should not be 

edgment. Stat. 35 Elizabeth, c. i, interpreted to decline or vary from 

provided for the imprisonment of the congregation of Christ's Church, 

the Nonconformist ; and if he did in any things concerning the very 

not conform at the end of three articles of the Catholic Faith of 

months, for his abjuration of the Christendom. 25 Henry VIII. c. 

realm. 21. 

33* 



390 



PROGRESS OF THE ELDERS 



1G03. 
March. 



April 



1604. 
•Tanuarv. 



tion. This was the ground taken by the Enghsh 
Reformers. The EngHsh Church erected no new plat- 
form ; she simply shook from her ancient foundations 
the throne of a pope. The firm stand of Queen Eliza- 
beth smothered, for the time, private reasoning and polit- 
ical religionism ; ^ but, on the accession of James, they 
burst out with renewed vigor. He had scarce time to 
acquaint himself with his novel position, when he was 
greeted with " the humble petition of the thousand min- 
isters,"^ desiring a new reformation of the Church. 
They had hopes of the " royal pedant," since he had 
been educated by Buchanan, under the wing of the kirk.^ 
The " Millenary Petition " produced the famous Con- 
ference at Hampton Court. Knewstubs requested the 
abolition of the cross and surplice, and Reynolds that of 
the functions of bishops. And, in reply, Bancroft knelt to 
the king, and begged that, as " it was a time of moving 
petitions, he might move two or three to his Majesty ; " 
since it was now come to pass, he said, that men thought 
it was the only duty of ministers to spend their time in 
the pulpit, he begged that there miglit be a praying min- 
istry. I like your motion well, said the king ; and dislike 
the hypocrisy of our times, who place all their religion 
in the ear, while prayer is accounted as the least part of 
religion.^ 

This exaltation of the pulpit was not simply to degrade 
the altar, but to overlook the throne. Those who had 
not the honesty to renounce the priestly office, when its 



1 Such was the reputation left by says Southcy, the subscription fell 

this able sovereign, that *' pictures short of that amount by some hun- 

of her monument were hung up in dreds. Prince puts the number at 

most London, and in many country seven hundred and forty-six. Vol. i. 

churches; every parish being proud p. 7. 
of the shadow of her tomb." Sou- 3 Fuller, 
they, vol. ii. p. 304. 4 Southey's Book of the Church. 

~ So called by courtesy ; though, Cardwell's History of Conferences. 



FROM SCHISM TO SECTARIANISM. 39 1 

functions interfered with their consciences, remained in part 
the Church, to foment trouble, in the guise of its clergy. ^-^^ — - 
We desire, said Repiolds, that the clergy may meet 
every three weeks, to discuss and to prophesy. If you 
aim at a Scottish Presbytery, returned the king, it agree- 
eth as well with monarchy as God and the devil. You 
declare for my supremacy now ; but how was it in Scot- 
land ? ^ When Queen Mary restored the Papal Supre- 
macy in England, Knox writes to the Queen Regent of 
Scotland, that she was the Supreme Head of the Church, 
and charged her, as she would answer it at God's tri- 
bunal, to take care of Christ, his Evangil. But how 
long, trow you, did this continue 1 Even till by her 
authority the Popish bishops were suppressed, and Knox 
and his adherents were brought in. How they used the 
poor lady, my mother, is not unkno\^^l, and how they 
dealt with me in my minority. We desire, said Rey- 
nolds, that the Bible may be new translated, because the 
Sabbath is profaned. The king agreed that no English 
translation was good, but added, that that of Geneva was 
worse ; and referred, in proof, to the marginal notes in 
that Bible, where disobedience to kings was encouraged. 
The purpose was too obvious. " All kings are the 
devil's bairns," said a Scotch preacher ^ from his pulpit ; 

1 Such had been the alarming in- that he would sufler the curse that 
crease of the Presbyterian faction in fell upon Jeroboam, and die child- 
England, from November, 1572, to less, and the last of his race. This 
September, 1590, that from one was on the occasion of his desiring 
small presbytery at Wandsworth, in the magistrates of Edinboro' to give 
Surrey, they had spread through an entertainment to the French am- 
many of the English counties, and bassadors, before their departure from 
had begun to hold synods and classes. Scotland. Southey. The king's 
In consequence of this, the High tutor, Buchanan, if not the earliest, 
Commission and Star Chamber was the most celebrated, according 
Courts dissolved them, in 159 1. to Gibbon, of the Reformers who 
Prince, vol. i. p. 233. justified the theory of resistance. 

~ One Scotch preacher was so See his Dialogue " De jure regni 

imprudent as to denounce King apud Scotos." Gibbon, Dec. and 

James from the pulpit; declaring Fall, c. 20, n. 21. 



392 PROGRESS OF THE ELDERS 

^^'^^- and James believed, if not his honesty, at least his sin- 
' — ' ' cerity. 
Frustrates The Conference at Hampton Court became an era in 

the designs , , . p t-i i i m 

of the I'u- the history of Enoland. Those who had " wearied them- 
selves with their private contrivements during- the reign 
of Elizabeth, found their new sovereign a ready listener, 
1604. but a determined defender of the Church.^ He heard 
what Dissent could offer in behalf of Innovation, and 
banished it from his presence. He settled the point, that, 
for that age at least, the Church and the State belonged 
to each other. ^ He forbade Puritanism to hope any thing 
from the House of Stuart, or to claim fellowship with 
the Hierarchy of England. Thenceforth, efforts to 
modify were changed into efforts to destroy ; and the 
determined purpose of Puritans to renounce the Catho- 
licity of religion rendered them unfit for the ministrations 
of the Church. Many, who had till now remained under 
her banners, eating of her bread and partaking of her 
bounty, were deprived for their disloyalty.^ The ranks 
of the Nonconformists were gradually swelling, and the 
religious world of England was preparing for a terrible 
conflict. 
Absurdity There was great absurdity in the complaints of the 
arguments. Puritaiis Concerning the usages of the Church. The 
only question seemed to be, whether they were Popish or 
not. To observe Christmas was wrong, because it was 
also observed in Rome. To keep the fast of Good 
Friday was scandalous, for on that day the Catholic 

1 On meeting his parliament at ters in church livings either to con- 
Westminster, in March, after this form, or cease living on the Church, 
conference, James declared the Pu- Prince. 

ritans to be a sect not to be suf- 3 The number of Puritan minis- 

fcred in any well-ordered common- ters deprived for not subscribing the 

wealth. canons was two hundred and seventy 

2 In July, a royal proclamation Prince, 
issued, ordering all Puritan minis- 



FROM SCHISM TO SECTARIANISM. 393 

world was clad in mourning", from the Hellespont to the pakt 
shores of the Atlantic. To wear a surplice was sinful, ^ — ^ — ' 
because it was a rag of Popery.^ The Puritan claimed 
merit for his system, simply because it was a system of 
opposites. But however ingenious this might have been, 
he certainly had no right to feel aggrieved that its wit 
was not perceived by the English Hierarchy or the king. 
Respect the prejudices of the weak brethren, said Knew- 
stubs, who are offended contrary to the counsels of the 
Apostle. " How long will such brethren ' be weak 1 " 
replied the king ; " are not forty-five years sufficient for 
them to grow strong in 1 Besides, who pretends this 
weakness ? We require not subscriptions of laicks and 
idiots, but of preachers and ministers, who are not still, I 
trow, to be fed with milk." ^ 

The utter futility of the Puritan arguments on this Ecciesiasti- 
memorable occasion, carried on by the ablest champions of James i. 
of the faction, entirely satisfied the king. He had seen 
the working of the Presbyterian system in Scotland, the 
introduction of which, by Knox, had been favored by the 
Scotch nobility, on account of the facility it gave them 
for dividing the church property ; ^ and he bore into 



1 Knewstubs, however, finding such 3 Southey. The same division of 

arguments as this unavailing, ob- church property seems to have been 

jected to the king that it was a gar- contemplated among the English 

ment worn by the priests of Isis. Puritans. The arguments used by 

" We ought, in ceremonies," said Dr. Preston to win over Bucking- 

Cartwright, " to conform to the ham, and, through him, the king, 

Turks rather than the Papists." were of this nature. The king's 

Reynolds and his colleagues, being debts were to be paid out of the 

entirely unable to answer the argu- foundations of deans and chapters, 

ments of the king, were silenced ; " If a crumb stick in the throat of 

and, in consequence, were disowned any considerable man that attempts 

by their party. The Puritans com- an opposition," said the zealous di- 

plained of them, that they argued as vine, " it will be easy to wash it 

if the ceremonies they objected to down with manors, woods, royalties, 

were indifferent instead of sinful. tythes," etc. Racket. 

2 Southey. Cardwell's History. 



394f PROGRESS OF THE ELDERS 

England a disgust, which the conference served but to 
strengtlien and confirm. My aphorism is, said James, 
No bishop, no king. " Take heed, my son," addressing 
Prince Henry, " of the Puritans ; very pests in the 
church and commonwealth, whom neither oaths nor prom- 
ises bind, making their own imaginations the square of 
their conscience." ^ It was this private reasoning of 
which he so justly stood in fear, not the principles of 
Christian liberty. The Church was a firm supporter of 
his government ; Puritanism was not. The Church 
upheld order ; Puritanism, disorder. The Church was 
identified with the State ; Puritanism was a system of 
innovation. The Church was an old, familiar friend ; 
might not Puritanism prove itself a bitter enemy ? Yet 
■ something more than this had its influence upon the 
king's mind. He could not forget the glory associated 
with the Catholic Faith, and the long line of an illustrious 
priesthood, which stretched unbroken back to the Great 
High Priest of Christianity. " The ministry planted by 
Christ was a sweet rose, and so it continued for ages." 
It was not for James to suffer it to be choked by the 
nettles of Protestantism. This was why the king de- 
clared, at the famous conference, " that there should not 
be such a general departure from the Papists, that every 
thing should be accounted an error wherein we agree 
with them." This was why he declared to his parlia- 
March. mcut, uot two moutlis after, that the Roman Church was 
their Mother Church, " though defiled with some infirmi- 
ties and corruptions," and that " he would be content to 
meet her in the midway." ^ The " temper of the na- 

1 Basilicon Doron. 4to. London, 1604, and cited in 

2 Cardwcll's Hist, of Conferences. Prince. 
King James's Speech, printed in 



FROM SCHISM TO SECTARIANISM. 395 

tion," ^ and the lofty pretensions of Rome,^ alone pre- 
vented this desirable reunion. 

James the First was the Defender of the Eno;-lish Causes of 

^ the increase 

Faith, but he was not intolerant. If " every good man's of Puri- 

. tanism. 

son " would make catechisms and preach, he might do 
so, but not as a member of or against the Church. That 
band of Puritans who fled from England to Holland, and 1608. 
finished their exploits on the Rock of Plymouth, reviled 1620. 
the English Church as anti-Christian.^ It was liberty* 
to do this, that they sought among " licentious " ° Dutch 
and " painted salvages." Libels, however, were punished 
with severity. The High Commission Court would not 
allow of abuse under the plea of liberty. Where insanity 
assumes a form dangerous to the welfare of society, 
restraint is no longer considered as a loss of liberty, but 
a rule of necessity. The same is true of fanaticism. 
Yet it cannot be doubted that the rigor with which libels 



1 Southey. more rigid Separatists, in 1602," 

2 On the discovery of the Gun- and these " rigidly lenounced com- 
powder Plot, parliament thought it munion both with her and her offi- 
necessary to require from every Ro- cers, as Popish and anti-Christian, 
man Catholic the oath of allegiance, and even with those who held com- 
The pope forbade this, as injurious munion with her." Prince. 

to his authority. 4 Jt was not liberty for which the 

3 " As for the government of the Puritans contended, but the substi- 
Church of England, the liturgy and tution of Puritanism for Catholi- 
stinted prayers, yea, the constitution cism. Repeated instances can be 
of the Church, as national, and so mentioned, where persons enjoying 
the corrupt communion of the wor- their " harmless recreations " after 
thy with the unworthy, — these Divine service, on Sundays, were 
things were never approved of him, attacked and maltreated for not ob- 
( Robinson,) but witnessed against serving the Sabbath. 

to his death, and by the church un- 5 The manners of the Dutch were 

der him." Winslow's Ground of too licentious for them, says Hutcn- 

Planting New England. It appears, inson. The " licentiousness of the 

however, that afterward he allowed youth and the temptations of the 

"the godlv ministers" (Qu. Puri- place" corrupted their children, 

tans ?) pri-uate communion with his They " taking to courses tending to 

flock. Prince, vol. i. p. 88, n. dissoluteness and the danger of their 

" When he commenced his ministry souls." Prince, vol. i. p. 49. In 

at Levden, he was a rigid Bron.vn- Morton's Memorial, the further rea- 

ist.'' Grahame. " Mr. Robinson, son is assigned of the great neglect 

at first, indeed, went off among the of the Lord's Day. 



396 PROGRESS OF THE ELDERS 

\ 

and slanders were visited by the Commission Court, m 
tlie latter part of this reign, was imprudent and impolitic. 
Wherever punishment is disproportionate to the offence, 
the sufferer is honored and his cause promoted. While 
1604-10. Bancroft presided over the Church, grave reproofs and 
mild sentences cleared up the lowering horizon ; but 
1611-27. Abbot, his successor, an "over austere and rigid man,' 
" grew indulgent to the Puritans," though " he showed 
no mercy to those of the Separation." By this unhappy 
course, Puritanism increased within the Church, and Sep- 
aration without. And while sermons, performing the 
office of a corrupt press, stimulated the growing faction,^ 
a tribunal, of which " none but the guilty stood in fear," 
became a reproach to the state.^ 
Puritanism When Charlcs the First grasped the sceptre of the 
enTbarrass three kingdoms, Puritanism was sufficiently strong to 
ment. embarrass the State as well as to attack the Church. 
1625. From the beginning, the end might have been pre- 
dicted.^ Involved in a war with Spain, the king courted 
his parliament, and was repulsed ; he demanded supplies, 
and was refused. " Remember," said he, " that you 
were pleased to employ me to advise my father to break 
off the treaties with Spain. I came into this business 
willingly and freely, like a young man, and, consequently, 
rashly, but it was by your interest and your engagement."* 
The frankness of youth was met by the cold reply, 
that one parliament is not bound by another parliament. 



1 When Elizabeth wished to pre- with Puritans, that Williams, Bishop 
pare the nation for any of her mea- of Lincoln, would not meddle against 
sures, she began by " tuning the them ; and said he was sure they 
pulpits." This ingenious device was would carry all at last." Prince, 
borrowed by the Puritans from the vol. i. p. 234. 

crown, and turned against it. '• Rushworth. Secret History of 

2 Fuller. Southey. Prince. Charles I. and his First Parliaments, 

3 According to Rushworth, "in by D'Isracli. 
1626, the country was so overspread 



March. 



FROM SCHISM TO SECTARIANISM. 897 

Urged to embark the kingdom in a war ere lie had fa in 
ascended the throne, on the ground that it was necessary < — v — 
to protect the Protestant cause in Europe, he was aban- 
doned, on his accession, to carry it on as best he might. 
His entreaties for supplies were met by petitions for the 
" redress of grievances." And thus Charles, mocked by 
the party which had betrayed him, commenced his event- 
ful reign. 

The assumption of a political character by Puritan- causes tiu 

^ _ ^ _ "^ _ arbitrary 

ism ; the assertion of a partisan as well as a sectarian acts of 

'■ Charles I. 

principle, caused the overthrow of the throne and the 
Church. The maxim of the Stuart was, that " it is bet- 
ter to be deceived than to distrust ; " ^ and it was not 
until repeated attempts had been made to soften the 
obstinacy of parliament, that the honor of the nation 
compelled him at last to assert the royal prerogative. 
Yet how gently was this done. " This is not the first 
time," he proclaimed, " that private helps have been af- 
forded to the public service ; but since it is the first time 
that we have required any thing of this kind, we require 
but that sum which few men would deny a friend." ^ Nor 
did the king demand what he himself was unwilling to 
bestow. He practised the most humiliating economy. 
His coronation was almost private, in order " to save the 
charges for more noble undertakings." He mortgaged 
his lands in Cornwall to the Aldermen and Companies of 
London ; and even " all the tables at court were laid 
down, and the courtiers put on board wages." The 
fleets of England were to be victualled by the savings 



1 Southey. was the mockery of an ahns basket! 

2 "The highest sum assessed from Yet, with contributions and savings 
great personages, on the occasion of so trivial, the king was to send out 
this forced loan, was twenty pounds, a fleet with ten thousand men to 
All donations were received, from take Cadiz." D'Israeli's Sec. His- 
ten pounds to five shillings. This tory, etc. 

34 



398 



PROGRESS OF THE ELDERS 



CHAP, of the royal kitchens ! Such was tlie origin of that 
^ — y — ' arbitrary pohcy, which nearly lost the liberties of Eng- 
land. It was forced upon the king, not sought by him ; 
for Charles wept with emotion, on the only occasion of 
liberality displayed by parliament during his reign, and 
declared himself to the messenger of the House of Com- 
mons " more happy than any of his predecessors." ^ 
Develops But while Charles was vainly endeavoring to soften 
dcr Abbot's the political asperity of Puritanism, while he was con- 
daring the tending against that factious spirit which impoverished 
testi with his exchequer and dishonored his arms, the venom, 

parliament. i /» i • r* \ i i " • ii 

" under the fatal protection oi Abbot, was rapidly 
spreading in the Church. The preacher was regarded 
above the priest ; the sermon above the sacrament. 
Advowsons, which at the Reformation passed into " the 
hands of the spoilers," were used as unworthily as they 
had been obtained. Lectureships were established, to 
scatter the seeds of Puritanism in the different market 
towns of the kingdom. Schoolmasters were appointed, 
to train the rising generation to principles of sectarian- 
ism and disloyalty.^ Pamphlets were scattered broadcast 
through the land, full of impious and railing expressions.^ 
Even the Bible itself was at last made an instrument in 
this unnatural warfare, by unholy frauds. " The small 
price of the Bible caused the small prizing of the Bible."* 



1 MSS. letter quoted in D'ls- 
raeli's Sec. Hist. Rushvvorth, vol. 
i. p. 525. This was a grant ot sup- 
plies by an unanimous vote of his 
third parliament. The king, how- 
ever, might have spared his tears ; 
for the grant was subsequently with- 
held, on the ground that the redress 
of grievances and supplies go hand 
in hand. " Had the concessions of 
Charles," said Dr. Johnson, " been 
related nakedly, without any detail 
of the circumstances which led to 



them, they would not have been 
believed." Tour to the Hebrides. 

2 Southey. 

3 Swift says, that in rummaging 
for old books in " Little Britain and 
Duck Lane, he found a great num- 
ber of pamphlets, printed from 1630 
to 1640, full of impious and railing 
expressions against the crown and 
bishops." See his Presbyterians 
Plea of Merit. 

4 Fuller. 



FROM SCHISM TO SECTARIANISM. 899 

Passages were interpolated, meanings falsified, and texts part 
omitted. And when the rule of the state passed from ^ — ■< — ' 
the Presbyterians to the Independents, the Bible began 
to swarm with faults, reducing its text to nonsense or 
blasphemy, and rendering its holy teachings contemp- 
tible.i 

This is but a hasty outline of the headlono- and deoen- Growth of 

/ , . . republican- 

erate course of Puritanism. In the mean time, the prin- ism. 
ciples of republicanism generated by the Netherland wars 
were imported into England by soldiers of fortune. The 
commercial prosperity of the Dutch was attributed, by 
the trading community, to the form of their common- 
wealth. And many of the higher classes, carried away 
by their love of the classics, were more impressed with 
the triumphs of the forum and the theatre than with the 
fickleness and barbarity which characterized the leading 
republics of the ancient world. And, moreover, men of 
all classes, actuated by the purest intentions, opposed the 
arbitrary rule which Puritanism had called forth. The 
rays of public opinion all tended to one focus, and that 
focus was innovation. 

Such were the clouds that settled early in the reign of Policy of 
Charles I. upon the Church and throne. The instru- govern- 
ments employed in the cause of religion and order were 
the courts of High Commission and Star Chamber. The 
puritanical Abbot, being displaced from a position which 1627. 
he had disgraced, wa§ succeeded by the catholic Laud, 
who endeavored to restore the Church to her rightful 
position. In this great work, he had the hearty coopera- 
tion of the king. The object of these illustrious martyrs 
was to recover the unity of the Catholic Church, so far 



1 This was particularly the case was corrupted by substituting ye for 
with the Independents. Acts vi. 3 ijue. D'lsraeli, Pearl Bibles. 



400 PROGRESS OF THE ELDERS 

as was consistent with the national independence. They 
saw that the Church of England had nothing- in common 
with tlie Protestantism of Germany or the Calvinism of 
Geneva ; that, in throwing off the yoke of foreign eccle- 
siastics, she did not intend to renounce the authority of 
her own ; and that, in denying the pope to he her hishop, 
she did not intend to question his lawful dignity, or to 
lose one single article of faith. And, doubtless, the zeal 
of the king was increased by the fact, that while Catholi- 
cism taught, in her purest ages under the tyranny of 
Pagan Rome, the grand principle of obedience to the 
civil magistrate. Protestantism boldly attacked the doc- 
trine of submission as superstitious, and confidently ap- 
pealed to Heaven to smile upon rebellion and anarchy. 

Disgusted with parliaments, whose double object was 
to degrade the throne rather than elevate the nation, and 
to destroy the Church instead of promoting true religion,^ 
Charles resolved to try the fatal experiment of wrapping 
himself in his prerogatives, and reigning without a legis- 
lature. While he, with the unfortunate Strafford, under- 
took the administration of civil affairs. Laud was engaged 
in the unpleasing task of purifying the Church. In 
this work, he encountered the most violent opposition. 
" Libels of the foulest and most atrocious character " 
were poured upon his devoted head, and the severity with 
Avhich tliese offences were visited by the Star Chamber 
attests the exciting nature of the Contest.^ But we must 

1 Of John Hampden, the best of 2 Among the pilloried saints of 

the English Puritans, a fact is related the Puritans were l.eighton and 

which illustrates the spirit of the Prynne and Bostwick. Prynne's 

times. In speaking of the means punishment was quite severe, be- 

necessary to overthrow the Church cause his was a second oft'ence. 

and State, he said, " we must fox Yet he declared in his old age, that 

the people with religion, as a stalk- " if the king had cut off his head 

ing horse." Lawson's Life of Laud, when he only cropt his ears, he had 

vol. ii. p. 375. See British Critic, done no more than justice, and had 

vol. X. p. 417. done God and the nation good ser- 



FROM SCHISM TO SECTARIANISM. 401 

leave the future martyrs to their impossible tasks, and part 
follow a small company of their enemies to the wilder- * — v — ' 
ness. Yet, though their administration was severe, we 
can leave them with no bitterness, when we reflect upon 
the greater tyranny that followed.^ Precedents were 
never wanting at their hands for the arbitrary acts which 
distinguished this disastrous reign, and it was more in 
sorrow than in anger that the king made use of them. 
Ever ready to throw himself upon the bosom of his 
people, ever prevented by parliament, he saw his friends 
snatched from him by the superior power he was oppos- 
inof, and himself left solitarv and friendless in a wilderness 
more dreadful than that which Puritanism had adopted, 
lighted only by the evil star of his family, filled with wild 
beasts more ferocious than those which roamed in the 
woods of New England, and bounded by the scaffold. 
The most ardent lovers of liberty will acknowledge the 
majesty of the martyr, although they condemn the faults 
of the king. Some there are, doubtless, who contemplate 
that " grey discrowned head " with feelings of more than 
reverence, and who console themselves for his untimely 
fate with the reflection, that, in submitting to the axe, he 
but added his name to that glorious company at the head 
of which shines the Cross.^ 

vice." Southey, vol. ii. p. 352. As that when he was in the hands of 

to the kind of libels then in vogue, his enemies he addressed a letter to 

see Ludlow's Letter to Dr. HoUing- his son, respecting the Interests of 

worth, cited in Neal. the Church : " If you never see my 

1 It was the unhappy lot of Charles face again," said he, " I do require 
" to find among his people subjects and entreat you, as your father and 
more loyal than their representa- king, never to suffer your heart to 
tives." D'Israeli. The maxim of receive the least check against the 
Charles was, " Christ is the alone true religion established in the 
King of men's consciences." Church of England." Southey. 

2 1 1 is the peculiar glory of Charles, 

34* 



4'02 PROGRESS OF THE ELDERS 



Part II. 

Motives of the Puritan Emigration — Grief manifested at leaving Eng- 
land — The "Humble Request" from Yarmouth — Ambiguity of the 
Farewell — Assertion of a Catholic Ministry — Rapid Assimilation 
with the Independents — Renounce Catholic Orders as sinful — Grow- 
ing Enmity to the English Church, aided by Superstition — Promoted 
by Legislation — Influence of Harvard College — Samuel Maverick — 
Robert Child — Gross Tyranny of the Magistrates — Child and Mav- 
erick, viith others, petition — Spirit of the Petition — Indignation of the 
Elders — General Court answers the Petition — Trial of the Petitioners 
for Sedition — The Petitioners denounced by the Elders for appealing 

— Church Feeling in Massachusetts at the Restoration — ^arm of the 
Elders at the Restoration of the Church — They assert the Divine Right 
of Puritanism — Refuse to allow the Use of the Common Prayer — 
Again refuse to allow Churchmen Liberty of Conscience — Randolph 
opens the Way for the Church — Presses for able and sober Minis- 
ters — Obstacles in the Way — Arbitrary Proposals of Randolph — 
Arrival of Robert Ratcliffe — Formation of the Parish of King's Chapel 

— Opposition of the Elders — Difficulties of Randolph — Andros en- 
treats the Elders in Behalf of the Church — Arbitrary Acts of Andros — 
Loyalty of the Church Party. 

CHAP. It was while the Church yet remained under the sway 

y^.^^,^^ of the puritanical Abbot, who was " almost the idol of 

the'^Puritaa ^^^^ party," ^ that the plan was formed and put in 

emigration, operation of converting- the savages of Massachusetts. 

We have seen how, for the purpose of forwarding- this 

enterprise, it was thought best to connect it with the 

inducement of profits ; and we have seen how miserable 

was the failure in this novel attempt to connect the 

Church with the warehouse. Perhaps it was this failurie 

that prepared the minds of some of tlie freemen to listen 

favorably to the overtures of those Churchmen, who, 

infected with Puritanism, were alarmed at the active 

1 Le Bas's Life of Laud, cited in Coit's Puritanism. 



FROM SCHISM TO SECTARIANISM. 4*03 

measures which followed the suspension of Abbot. But 
the sale of the corporate property to the new company, 
for the accomplishment of a purpose so different from 
the original objects of the franchise, was obtained only 
after much debate, and even then with no unanimity. 
Some doubted its legality ; others were unwilling to 
forego the brilliant hopes which had induced them to 
embark a portion of their substance in a perilous enter- 
prise. And a nobler feeling animated the breasts of 
many, who, by this transfer of the franchise, connected the 
wronging of the crown with the robbery of the savages. 
In thus separating from a church, which the Puritan 
could not conscientiously support, tjiere was less offence 
than in promoting its ruin under the guise of friend- 
ship. The experiment would have been honorable had it 
been honest. It was better to seek a country where no 
one would oppose the vagaries of fancy and opinion, than 
to continue where they were promotive of confusion and 
anarchy. Indeed, the world has been willing to applaud 
the act of self exile, and to merge its injustice in its 
heroism. Puritanism, flying from a country not its 
home, has been made godlike by the apotheosis of his- 
tory. But history, pandering to the sympathies of man- 
kind, is no longer a medium of truth. The surgeon 
whose skill is at the mercy of his heart is unworthy of 
support. Each stroke of his knife may inflict a mortal 
injury. It would have been noble indeed if Puritanism, 
however erroneous in itself, had, without spot or blemish, 
fled to the wilderness to enjoy the blessings of religious 
liberty. We might then have confided in its pious 
assertions, and have traced its subsequent degeneracy 
with feelings of earnest sympathy. But what can be 
seen in its career, as it was, more lofty than political 
religionism ^ , 




404< PROGRESS OF THE ELDERS 

Preliminaries were at length adjusted. The ships that 
were to hear the Pilgrim Puritans to their new homes 
were riding at their anchors. Their stores and. their 
cattle were all emharked, and they had arrived " at the 
pinch and upshot of .the trial." An affecting scene now 
awaited them. They were for the last time to take by 
the hand those dear friends and countrymen, the com- 
panions of their youth and manhood. Henceforth, their 
paths in life were to be separate. The same sun, indeed, 
was to shine over their heads ; but what else could the 
smiling landscapes of England have in common with the 
desolate wilderness to which they were going ? A " sol- 
emn feast" commemorated this pathetic farewell. With 
heavy hearts, they assembled around the social board to 
exchange once more the words of affection and hospital- 
ity. The sadness of the occasion may be easily imagined. 
It fell to the lot of " that honorable and worthy gentle- 
man, Mr. John Winthrop, ' to say what was becoming 
to the assembled company ; but, in attempting to drink 
to the little party, he " brake into a flood of tears, and 
set them all a weeping." ^ Yet this trial, so honorable 
to their feelings, did not for one moment shake their pur- 
pose ; their hearts were heavy, but their wills were inflex- 
ible. The courage of one or two indeed failed, almost 
at the eleventh hour ; but their places were filled by 
others, more zealous and determined. The ranks of the 
forlorn hope remained unbroken. Their " dear native 
land " they could not allow to stand between them and 
their religion. They were not able to serve two masters, 
and they were flying from a superstitious bondage to an 
heritage of religious freedom. The pieans of Puritanism 
were to be raised in a land where persecution was un- 

1 Hubbard. 



FROM SCHISM TO SECTARIANISM. 405 

known, and a state was to be erected which would trans- part 
. . . . . . . n. 

mit to their posterity the pure rehgion of the primitive ' — y-^ 

ages of Christianity. 

The contemplated movement, however, could not pass The " hum- 
without remark. Its legality had already been ques- quest" from 

,■■ 11 ^1 1 ii-i- Yarmouth. 

tioned, and measures had been taken to sliroud its object 

in mystery.^ The new company, fearful of the inter- 1629. 

,. p , 11-1 • October. 

rerence or the government, had in the previous autumn 
rebuked Higginson and Endecott, for establishing a relig- 
ious system after the pattern of the Plymouth Pilgrims. 
And now they were anxious to finish with credit what 
they had commenced at so great a sacrifice. Providence 
seemed specially to interfere for this purpose. Weighing 
anchor hastily on the morning of the twenty-ninth of 
Marcli,^ they steered their reluctant course down the 1630. 
English Channel, but, encountering bad weather, they 
took refuge in the port of Yarmouth. Here they re- 
lieved the burden upon their minds, by publishing' their 
farewell to their brethren in and of the Church of Enof- 
land, "for the obtaining of their prayers and the removal 
of their suspicions." " Reverend Fathers and Brethren, 
the general rumor of this solemn enterprise, wherein 
ourselves, with others, through the Providence of the 
Almighty, are engaged, as it may spare us the labor of 
imparting our occasion unto you, so it gives us the more 
encouragement to strengthen ourselves by the procure- 
ment of the prayers and blessings of the Lord's faithful 



1 See ante, ch. I. p. 19. so at very short notice, and neglected 

~ It seems that The Arabella, to publish the interesting document 

The Talbot, The Ambrose, and in the text, which had been prepared 

The Jewel, were ready to sail before for them by Mr. White, of Dor- 

the other vessels, and that Cradock, Chester. Had it not been for the 

who owned the last two, urged them rough weather they encountered, 

to depart without waiting tor them, possibly it would never have been 

Although they complied with his made public. Prince. Hubbard, 
entreaty, it seems probable they did 



406 PROGRESS OF THE ELDERS 

servants. For which end we are bold to have recourse 
unto you, as those whom God hath placed nearest his 
throne of mercy ; which, as it atFords you the more 
opportunity, so it imposeth the greater bond upon you to 
intercede for his people in all their straits. We beseech 
you, therefore, by the mercies of the Lord Jesus, to con- 
sider us as your brethren, standing in very great need of 
your help, and earnestly imploring it. And howsoever 
your charity may have met with some occasional discour- 
agement through the misreport of our intentions, or 
through the disaffection or indiscretion of some of us, or 
rather amongst us,^ for we are not of those who dream 
of perfection in this world ; yet we desire you would be 
pleased to take notice of the principals and body of our 
company, as those who esteem it our honor to call the 
Church of England, from whence we rise, our dear 
mother ; and cannot part from our native country, where 
she specially resideth, without much sadness of heart and 
many tears in our eyes, ever acknowledging that such 
hope and part as we have obtained in the conmion salva- 
tion, we have received it in her bosom, and sucked it 
from her breasts. We leave it not, therefore, as loathing 
that milk wherewith we were nourished there ; but bless- 
ing God for the parentage and education, as members of 
the same body shall always rejoice in her good, and 
unfeignedly grieve for any sorrow that shall ever betide 
her ; and, while we have breath, sincerely desire and 
endeavor the continuance and abundance of her welfare, 
with the enlargement of her bounds in the kingdom of 
Jesus Christ. 

" Be pleased, therefore, reverend fathers and brethren, 
to help forward this work now in hand ; which, if it 

1 Does this expression refer to Endecott, Higginson, and others? 



FROM SCHISM TO SECTARIANISM. 407 

prosper, you shall be the more glorious ; howsoever your 
judgment is with your Lord, and your reward with your 
God. It is an usual and laudable exercise of your char- 
ity to commend to the prayers of your congregations the 
necessities and straits of your private neighbors. Do 
the like for a church springing out of your own bowels. 
We conceive much hppe that this remembrance of us, if 
it be frequent and fervent, will be a most prosperous gale 
in our sails, and provide such a passage and welcome for 
us from the God of the whole earth, as both we who 
shall find it, and yourselves with the rest of our friends 
who shall hear of it, shall be much enlarged to bring in 
such daily returns of thanksgivings, as the specialties of 
his Providence and goodness may justly challenge at all 
our hands. You are not ignorant that the Spirit of God 
stirred up the Apostle Paul to make continual mention of 
the Church of Philippi (which was a colony from Rome) ; 
let the same Spirit, we beseech you, put you in mind, 
that are the Lord's remembrancers, to pray for us with- 
out ceasing, (who are a weak colony from yourselves,) 
making continual request for us to God in all your 
prayers. 

" What we entreat of you, that are the ministers of 
God, that we also crave at the hands of all the rest of 
our brethren, that they would at no time forget us in 
their private solicitations at the throne of grace. 

" If any there be, who, through want of clear intelli- 
gence of our course, or tenderness of affection towards 
us, cannot conceive so much of our way as we could 
desire, we would entreat such not to despise us, nor to 
desert us in their prayers and affections ; but to consider 
rather that they are so much the more bound to express 
the bowels of their compassion towards us ; remembering 
always that both nature and grace doth ever bind us to 



408 PROGRESS OF THE ELDERS 

CHAP, relieve and rescue, with our utmost and speediest power, 
' — r — such as are dear unto us, when we conceive them to be 
running- uncomfortable hazards. 

"What goodness you shall extend to us, in this or any 
other Christian kindness, we, your brethren in Christ 
Jesus, shall labor to repay, in what duty we are or shall 
be able to perform ; promising, so far as God shall enable 
us, to give him no rest on your behalf, wishing our heads 
and hearts may be fountains of tears for your everlasting 
welfare, when we shall be in our poor cottages in the 
wilderness, overshadowed with the spirit of supplication, 
through the manifold necessities and tribulations which 
may, not altogether unexpectedly, nor we hope unprofit- 
ably, befall us. 

" And so commending you to the grace of God in 
Christ, we shall ever rest your assured friends and 
brethren." ^ 
Ambiguity Such was tlic ftarcwell of the Puritan Pilgrims to the 
Farewell. Church of England. And it is impossible but that 
public opinion should have been deceived by the gen- 
erous and noble sentiments contained in this religious 
manifesto. Help us, was the entreaty ; because, if we 
prosper, you shall be the more glorious. When we con- 
sider that the motive of the enterprise was to escape 
from the superstitious ceremonial of the Church, and 

1 This most Interesting letter was the slightest notice of this remark- 
signed by John Winthrop, Gov- able document. The latter particu- 
ernor, Charles L'ines, George Pliil- larly concealing its existence, enters 
ips, Richard Saltonstall, Isaac John- into a inost bungling and faulty 
son, Thomas Dudley, William Cod- argument, to clear up the " doubts 
dington, etc., and was dated " from and difficulties," which he confesses 
Yarmouth, aboard The Arabella, beset his mind as to the reason of 
April 7, 1630." This Yarmouth, the non-interference of the king with 
a small place in the Isle of Wight, so extraordinary a movement. What 
must not be confounded with the is, perhaps, more singular, Winthrop 
Yarmouth in Norfolk. Bancroft is silent. Did his subsequent course 
scarcely alludes to the subject of tend to make him ashamed of this 
this letter, nor does Grahamc take allectionate farewell ? 



FROM SCHISM TO SECTARIANISM. 409 

that the sentiments expressed in the " humble request " 
were such as could have been entertained only by the 
ardent admirers of the Church, we are forced to acknowl- 
edge that Jesuitism may exist among the bitterest enemies 
of Rome. Neither king nor bishop could have found any 
thing in the farewell of these Puritans to have excited the 
least alarm. Perhaps Laud prayed for their success and 
Charles smiled upon their enterprise. Their letter might 
have been read in every parish in the kingdom, to quiet 
that turbulent faction which was soon to overthrow the 
Church. For aught that appeared, the perverted fran- 
chise promised, in the hands of the new company, to 
exhibit the Church in her brightest colors, and to extend 
her communion, by proselyting those " tawny salvages," 
whose benefit, says the charter, " is the chief end of the 
plantation." ^ 

Four months found the signers of this letter settled in Assertion 
their new home, and discussing the principles on which \\c miiUs-^ 
they were to erect their church. What form of ecclesi- ^'' 
astical government should they adopt 1 If they estab- 
lished the system which Endecott had borrowed from the 
Pilgrims, would they not become Separatists ? If they 
continued their communion with the Church of England, 
would they not be under an Episcopate? The ministers 
who accompanied and sanctioned the enterprise were 
priests of the Catholic Church ; should they retain office 
by virtue of their previous ordinations, or receive fresh 
authority to administer the ordinances of religion at the 
hands of the laity 1 These questions were embarrassing. 

1 " They avowed their intentions when applying for a patent ? It 
to be only a secession in point of was answered, that the power of 
place, but no departure from doc- making was in the Church. It 
trines or worship." McSparrow's must either be in the Church or 
America Dissected. Who shall from the pope, and the pope is Anti- 
make your ministers ? said Sir John christ. Hazard, vol. i. p. 366. 
Worsingham to the Leyden exiles, 
35 



4-10 PROGRESS OF THE ELDERS 

CHAP. By disreg'arding- precedents, which centuries had conse- 
^ — .^ crated, they were left in chaos, unless they adopted prin- 
ciples rendered odious hy fanaticism. The " coyness of 
early schism " rendered it a perplexing position.^ 

Under this conflict of doubts and motives, a " solemn 
fast " was held ; and, having " sought the face of the 
Lord," they determined to occupy a middle ground.^ 
They had no advowsons or inductions ; the right, there- 
fore, of exercising spiritual authority could only be 
acquired by election. They had no parishes or tithes, 
and the support of a ministry necessarily depended upon 
taxation and contribution.^ But although they elected 
their elders, and confirmed them in office by the "impo- 
sition of hands," it was publicly protested that this 
ceremony should be considered only as a sign, and should 
not supersede the commission once received from the 
Catholic Church. The election was to operate as an 
installation, and not as an admission to Holy Orders.* 
Upon this basis, leaning by strong sympathy rather tow- 
ards their " dear mother," three thousand miles away, 
than the severe system of the rugged Independents, their 
near neighbors, the Puritans of Massachusetts reared 
their infant church. 
Rapid as- Starting from this Catholic point, a rapid and total 
with the severance of the ties that yet bound the Puritan Pilgrims 
ents. to the Mother Church soon created a difference as wide 

as the ocean that roared between them.^ A spirit of 

1 Bradford. Prince. been the skeleton of the singular 

~ Sav. Winthrop. Hubbard. town-parish system which exists in 

3 It was not until August, 1654, Massachusetts. See Act of May, 

during the full triumph of Inde- 1660. 

pendency in England, that the gen- '* Winthrop. Hubbard. Neal 

eral court ordered compulsory as- says that Wilson, although " an or- 

sessments to be levied on the inhab- daincd minister of the Church of 

itants of every town for the support England, submitted to a reordina- 

andencouragment of ministers. Col- tion." This is a great mistake, 

ony Laws. This law seems to have 5 At first, " those holding forth 



FROM SCHISM TO SECTARIANISM. 4-11 

rancor was fomented by the purging measures of Laud, 
and the gentle band of Winthrop was swelled into an 
angry and clamorous crowd by an accession of numbers 
from the ranks of the deprived ministers. Nearly eighty 
clergymen of the Church followed the pioneers of Puri- 
tanism into the wilderness before ten years had elapsed, 
and two thirds of these lived and died in Massachusetts.^ 
Scattered through the length and breadth of the land, 
they fed the growing sympathy between the Puritans of 
Massachusetts and the Sectarians in England. They 
excited a hostile spirit in the breasts of the colonists 
against the crown. They led the Puritan State into that 
singular position, in which it suffered its king to perish 
without a murmur or protest, in the face of a declaration 
made shortly before, that the long life and health of his 
sacred Majesty was the subject of their continual prayers 
to the King of kings.^ They blended the principles of 
Separation with those of Puritanism, until at last, the 
successors of Robinson and Wilson were considered as 
" bright stars in the same firmament." ^ The shores of 
Massachusetts Bay, from Cape Cod to Cape Ann, became 
lined with the watch-towers of Dissent ; and a feeble cry 
against superstition, caught up from the naked rock of 
Plymouth and passed along by the veterans of a common 

a profession of separation from the preachers of the word" at Plym- 

Church of England" were imme- outh and those in Massachusetts, 

diately checked by the elders. Ma- Winthrop tells us that he and Wil- 

ther, b. i, c. 3. son, the elder of Boston, visited 

1 Mather. See, also, Sav. Win- Plymouth as early as October, 1632, 
throp, vol. ii. p. 388, for a list of and took part with Ralph Smith, 
names. the minister there, in religious exer- 

2 Address of the General Court cises, although in 1629 the company 
to the Right Honorable the Lords had cautioned Endecott against him, 
Commissioners for Foreign Planta- on account of his Separatist princi- 
tions. Hutchinson, vol. i. Appen- pies. Sav. Winthrop, vol. i. p. 91. 
dix, p. 442. It must have been a singular spec- 

3 Mather and Hubbard, in their tacle to see the Separatists of Plym- 
ecclesiastical notices, make but lit- outh sitting in Synod with the proud 
tie if any distinction between " the Puritans of Massachusetts. 



412 



PROGRESS OF THE ELDERS 



Renounce 
Catholic 
orders, a? 
sinful. 



1637. 
April. 



cause, would have been echoed back in tones of thunder 
from the wooded hills of Naumkeag. 

Perhaps the rapid growth of sectarianism was unper- 
ceived by the Puritan Church, continually occupied as it 
was with preaching and persecution. Hostility against 
the Church Catholic might easily be disguised as zeal for 
the cause of God. The growth of bitter prejudice could 
readily be promoted by delusive harangues from the 
pulpit. In applying the lash to a Williams or a Wheel- 
wright, fresh ardor would be acquired against the enor- 
mities of unscriptural superstitions. A few years after 
the arrival of Winthrop, the question arose whether such 
as had been ministers in England, by virtue of Episcopal 
ordination, continued to be so in Massachusetts. The 
principle which had formed the subject of a solemn prot- 
estation on the formation of the first society in the colony 
had been gradually relaxing in strictness, and was now 
considered worthy of discussion. The elders, assembled 
at Concord to take part in a religious exercise, unani- 
mously resolved, in answer to an inquiry from Salem, 
that " the call of the people " alone had made them 
lawful ministers in England, notwithstanding " their 
acceptance of the call of the bishops, for which they 
humbled themselves, acknowledging it their sin ; " that 
in Massachusetts " they accounted themselves no minis- 
ters until they were called by another church ; " and that 
the act of election by. the people alone made them minis- 
ters, without any ceremony of ordination.^ 

This resolution, which even the mild Winthrop enters 
upon his journal without a word of disapprobation,^ 



1 Sav. Winthrop, vol. i. p. 217. rived from England. Perhaps they 

This occasion was the settlement of were smarting under some imaginary 

two elders at Concord, Mr. Bulkly wrongs, 

and Mr. Jones, who had lately ar- 2 Hubbard does not even notice 



FROM SCHISM TO SECTARIANISM. 413 

shows the alarming' progress made by the Puritans since part 
their pathetic farewell to the Church from the Isle of v-^r>^ 
Wight. It was the proclamation of Independency. 
Puritanism in Massachusetts had advanced much further 
than Puritanism in England. The Church of England 
was already considered as Antichrist ; ^ and her bishops, 
stigmatized as " biting beasts," and as " whelps of the 
Roman litter," were considered as leading " the forlorn 
hope of Antichrist's army."^ The principle was as- 
serted, that the people were the source of spiritual, 
before it was even dreamed they were of political author- 
ity. The Puritan elders of Massachusetts could now 
justly claim no higher rank than the Familists they man- 
acled, the Baptists they scourged, and the Quakers they 
hanged. Although they distinguished their system from 
Independency, by calling it Congregationalism,^ the dis- 
tinction was only nominal. They abhorred fanaticism, 
and, therefore, would not fraternize with Seekers and 
Brownists.^ But they only stripped the system of Brown 
of its coarse and vulgar ornaments ; their fundamental 
principle was the same. An inward impulse was substi- 
tuted for an objective truth, and was embodied by the 
power of the people instead of the authority of the 
Church. Fox and Muncer had " inward calls " as well 
as the teachers of Puritanism. 

It is a curious trait of the human mind, that it seeks oiowino 

I, c • • •>• T. • . • 1 enmity to 

refuge from uncertainty in superstition. It is a triumpli the English 



the resolution, although it was cer- insonian Brownism, or Independency 

tainly a more important fact than without its enormities. 

the settlement of the two elders. "^ It may be useful to state, that 

1 Johnson, b. iii. c. 12. this word "Independents" did not 

2 Ibid. b. ii. c. 5. necessarily denote a particular sect, 

3 Hutchinson says that the Con- but, in a general manner, included 
gregational was the middle way be- Anabaptists, Antinomians, Brown- 
tween Brownism and Presbyterian- ists, Quakers, Seekers, Familists, etc. 
ism. In other words, it was Rob- Mather. Hubbard. 

35* 



414 PROGRESS OF THE ELDERS 

of imagination over reason. A dream, a comet, the 
shape of a pebble, are oracles where revelation is for- 
aided\y saken or unknown. A ship without a rudder is at the 
tion^"^ ' mercy of the element she was designed to override ; and 
the mind unsteadied by principle, or wandering from the 
truth, may easily become the slave of superstition. So 
it was when the despairing Saul endeavored to rend the 
veil which shielded the gloomy future from his bloodshot 
eye. So it is whenever the rustic maid crosses with 
silver the palm of the gipsy vagabond. To sources of 
a kindred nature, the Puritan Pilgrims applied for ex- 
cuses to justify their schism. Looking steadfastly in one 
direction, absorbed by only one interest, they neglected 
the broad and beaming sun for the specks and motes 
which floated in his rays. Among the strange noises, 
the terrible meteors, and the sudden catastrophes, which 
abound in the early histories of Massachusetts, a more 
unpretending incident finds place, which exhibits an 
amusing picture of enmity and superstition, only ten 
1640. years after Winthrop's fleet had unmoored in the harbor 
of Southampton. " About this time fell out a thing 
worthy of observation. One of the magistrates having 
many books in a chamber where there was corn of divers 
sorts, had among them one, wherein the Greek Testa- 
ment, the Psalms, and the Conmion Prayer were bound 
together. He found the Common Prayer eaten with 
mice, every leaf of it, and not any of the two other 
touched, nor any other of his books, though there were 
above a thousand." ^ Had Puritanism been certain of a 
divine mission, it would never liave embalmed such a fact 
as this, dug out of an old store-room, whose only occu- 

1 Sav. Winthrop, vol. il. p. 20. Cambridge by a cat,'' which shows 
This marvellous story is followed by that the worthy Winthrop was not 
a " Quere of the child killed at at all given to credulity. 



FROM SCHISM TO SECTARIANISM. 4*15 

pants were a few starving mice and a mouldy heap of part 
corn and books. Truth needs no such auxiharies, and ^ — r-^ 
can always afford to be generous. 

Such an event* as the foregoing was, without doubt, Promoted' 
noised through New England, and perhaps animated the tion. "^ 
public mind with fresh zeal. Certain it is that the gen- 
eral current of legislation, civil and ecclesiastical, here- 
after, from whatever cause, set against the religious 
institutions of England. " A day of thanksgiving was 
observed in all the churches, for the great success of the I64i. 
parliament " against the king.^ Missionaries were sent 
to carry the " means of salvation " to the benighted peo- i^^^. 
pie of Virginia. An English priest, exercising his sacred 
functions at Piscataqua, was arrested, and forced to leave 1642. 
the country.^ Maverick and Child, who petitioned for 
the enjoyment of religious liberty, were fined and impris- 1645. 
oned. Marriages were degraded from their proper rank, i646. 
as solemn ordinances of religion, and were, by express 
law, declared to be civil contracts only, to be celebrated 
by the civil authority alone. Episcopacy was declared, i648. 
by the first great synod in Massachusetts, to be an inven- 
tion of man, to the great dishonor of Jesus Christ.^ 
And, at last, it was ordered by the general court, that i65i. 
whoever should observe the holy days of the Church, either 



1 Agents in England were active, ar," says Winthrop. I say forced, 
not only in promoting anarchy there, because fine and other punishment 
but also in tormenting the venerable was remitted, on the express under- 
primate, who was languishing in standing that he should leave, and 
close confinement. Laud's Trou- this only when he had submitted to 
bles, pp. 213, 214. Chalmers's " the favor of the court." 
Annals, p. 172. Chalmers's Rev. 3 This was stating it more gin- 
of Col. vol. i. p. 84. Peters bru- gerly than Milton, who, in his Let- 
tally proposed that he should be sent ter on the Reformation, concludes 
to New England, to gratify the insa- with saying, that the bishops will be 
liable rancor of Puritanism, which spurned and trampled on by all the 
now began to predominate there. Le other damned in hell, and that they 
Bas's Laud, p. 300. will remain the basest and most 

2 "One Richard Gibson, a schol down-trodden vassals of perdition. 



! 



416 PROGRESS OF THE ELDERS 

CHAP, by abstaining from labor, by feasting, or in any other 
^^^,'-^ way, should, for every such offence, be subject to fine.^ 
These laws, and others of a similar kind, were but the 
expressions of the public mind. There was, in truth, no 
more danger to be apprehended from the Church than 
from Jesuitism, against which the terrors of the law 
were also directed during this animating period.^ No 
church could be gathered without the sanction of the 
elders and magistrates ; or, if any freemen so far forgot 
their duty as practically to assert the independence of 
every religious society, they endangered their civil rights. 
But the fathers of our commonwealth, whilst legislating 
against the Catholic religion, were only warning their 
posterity of the consequences of schism. 
Influence But preeminent among all the causes of Independency 
Harvard in Massachusctts was the foundation of Harvard College. 



College. 



This famous " seat of the Muses," early established for 
" the education of English and Indian youth in knowl- 
edge and godliness," ^ became the nursery of Puritan 
theology. Its rise was singularly rapid. Owing its 
origin to the honorable ambition of our ancestors, the 

1636. infant seminary was early adopted by the general court, 
enriched by private and public bounty, raised to the rank 

1637. of a college the year after it had commenced as a school,* 
placed under the special care of the elders and magis- 

1642. trates,^ and made a body corporate, with unprecedented 
privileges,^ ere forty graduates had left its halls,' and 



1 In 165 1, a law was also passed Jesuits, and other Roman ecelesias- 
preventing the landing of all Strang- tics, who might stray into the juris- 
crs, " of what quality soever," ex- diction, should be banished on pain 
cept they were immediately brought of death. 

before some of the magistrates, " to 3 Colony Laws, Act of 1650. 

give an account of their occasions "* Hubbard, 

and business in the country." Col- ^ Colony Laws, Act of 1642. 

ony Laws. ^ Tbid. Act of 1650. 

2 In 1647, it was ordered that all ' See Catalogus Universitatis. 



FROM SCHISM TO SECTARIANISM. 417 

while one individual discharged the multifarious duties part 
of president, professor, tutor, and librarian.^ Such were ^ — v^-' 
the caresses received by the posthumous offspring- of 
John Harvard.^ Nor was its early promise spoiled by 
indulgence. It increased each year in public estimation. 
The theses of its first graduating class embraced a wide 
scope of academical learning,^ and exhibited the results 
of a training, which, if less showy, was more scholastic 
than can be obtained at present. And it is sufficient for 
the glory of the venerable university to say, that its 
existence was recognized in the republic of letters long 
before the more ambitious structure of its founders was 
known in the family of nations. 

Rising in homely grandeur in the midst of the wilder- 
ness, the solitary Hall of Harvard soon became an object 
of more affectionate interest than the towers of Oxford 
and Cambridge. For its welfare, the elders prayed and 
the magistrates legislated. It was to train not only 
scholars but Puritans ; ^ and the future preachers of the 
colony were to go out from its shades, as well as the 
lawgivers and magistrates. But in such aspirations as 
these, the humble hopes of its early benefactors were 
forgotten. In becoming a Puritan college, it ceased 
to be a school for humanity. One lonely Indian youth 
wrung from its condescending liberality a bachelor's de- 
gree. His name, uncouth and unadorned, stands at the 



1 Henry Dunster. The college other progeny but this posthumous 
had overseers long before it had pro- university. Sav. Winthrop, vol. ii. 
fessors. p. 87, n. 2. 

2 The college was chiefly indebted 3 Hutchinson, vol. i. Appendix, 
to Rev. John Harvard, of Emman- p. 444. 

uel College, Cambridge. Savage, * Dunster, whose opinions on bap- 

in an interesting note, gives an ex- tism clashed with those entertained 

tract from an old almanac, by which by Puritans, had liberty, from this 

it appears that he gave seven hun- cause, to resign his oflice as presi- 

dredpounds,or half of his estate. He dent. Hubbard. Johnson, b. ii. 

left, says this diligent antiquary, no c. 19. 



418 



PROGRESS OF THE ELDERS 



Samuel 
Maverick. 



foot of his class, and tells a mingled story of bitterness 
and neglect.^ Far different was the lot of his more for- 
tunate white brothers. From the establishment of the 
college to the abrogation of the charter, a period of forty- 
three years, two hundred and sixty-eight English names 
were enrolled among the graduates of Harvard. Of 
these, one hundred and thirty-eight, or more than one 
half, became teachers of Puritanism. Unlike their pred- 
ecessors, receiving no ordination, both education and 
interest conspired to render them hostile to a church in 
which they had no part. Year after year, a fresh supply 
of zealots, burning with enthusiasm, leaped from the halls 
of the college into the broad arena of the wilderness. 
With no knowledge of the Church, except such as 
reached them through the distorted medium of prejudice 
or enmity, it became the business of their lives to preach 
a gospel which differed widely from her sacred teachings. 
The little communities, of which they became the centres, 
were guided far away into the paths of dissent ; and 
soon, under the influence they exercised, little difference 
could have been discovered between the schismatics of 
Massachusetts and the Separatists of Plymouth. 

Such were the chief causes which wrought an im- 
portant change in the religious polity of Massachusetts. 
The resolution " to enlarge the boundaries " of the 
Church in the wilderness, in the short space of a dozen 
years faded into indifference, and disappeared. In its 
place was substituted the spirit of enmity, separatism, 



1 This remarkably fortunate sav- one Indian actually became a bach- 
age possessed the singular style, elor of arts. Whether the adverb, 
mingled of Hebrew and Indian, of in this sentence, refers to the conde- 
Caleb Chei'shahteaurnuck. He was of scension of his instructors or to his 
the class of 1665, and died in 1666. own industry, it is hard for us to say, 
Bancroft, eulogizing the early Indian and perhaps would puzzle the his- 
missions, says, with amazement, that torian. 



FROM SCHISM TO SECTARIANISM. 419 

and persecution. Allusion has already been made to part 
Maverick and Child, whose case deserves a more ex- ^-^^ — ' 
tended notice, because it illustrates the principles which 
have previously been discussed. The arrival of Win- 
throp's fleet found Samuel Maverick, a clergyman of the 
Church of England, already settled on a flourishing plan- 
tation at Noddle's Island. Unconnected with the Puritan 
emigration, his motives for leaving his native country 
are at present a mystery, and the time when, and the 
manner in which he left, ar6 also unknown.^ Perhaps his 
was a mission to the savage, for the glory of God and 
his Church ; for his kindness to the Indians, says Win- 
throp, makes him " worthy of perpetual remembrance." ^ 
Certain it is, that his wealth and hospitality^ procured 
for him many friends ; and, though he was " an enemy 
to the reformation in hand," and " strong for the lordly 
prelatical power," * he was made a freeman of the com- 
pany, and his estate was confirmed to him by the general 
court. But these privileges were conferred before that 
monstrous alteration of the charter, which made the 
meanest privileges of citizenship entirely dependent upon 
membership with the established religion. His kindness 
of heart and his Christian philanthropy were not suffi- 
cient to protect him from the proscription of the elders ; 

1 Sav. Winthrop, vol. i. p. 27, hard mats to lie upon, and, " when 
n. 4. their pustules broke, they stuck to 

2 This tribute from a Puritan, to their mats ; and every time they 
the memory of a Churchman, show s turned themselves some of their skin 
that it was well deserved. It was flayed off, till they were all a gore 
during the terrible visitation of the of blood, and then, being sore, they 
smallpox among the Indians, in the caught cold, and died like rotten 
latter part of 1633, that Maverick sheep." 

and his family rendered themselves 3 According to Josselyn, who vis- 

so conspicuous in good works, going ited him in 1638, "he was the only 

" daily to them, ministering to their hospitable man in all the country, 

necessities, burying their dead," and giving entertainment to all comers, 

providing for their children. Neal gratis." 

says of the smallpox among the In- 4 Johnson, b. i. c. 17. 

dians, that they had nothing but 



4^ PROGRESS OF THE ELDERS 

and, when their rehgious system was fairly in operation, 
he was stripped of those sacred privileges which the 
ambassadors of God are expressly sent to confer upon 
mankind. He was compelled to contribute to the sup- 
port of the elders, but, with his family, was excluded 
from all participation in the solemn ordinances of relig- 
ion. Had he exercised his functions as a Catholic priest, 
he would have been imprisoned or banished. Had he 
claimed for his children, from the truant ministers of the 
Church, the rite of baptism, he would have been denied. 
Such was the anomalous position of Maverick. A few 
chosen friends, among whom was William Vassal, one 
of the corporators named in the charter, and a faithful 
Churchman,^ alone rendered it endurable. 
Robert Ere loug, their number was increased by the arrival 
1644. of Dr. Robert Child, who, fresh from the universities in 
Europe, full of ardor and zeal, was by no means disposed 
tamely to submit to the robbery of his rights as an Eng- 
lish subject, because he would not subscribe to tenets 
which education and habit made odious. Coming to 
Massachusetts for objects connected with science,'^ he 
found himself immediately deprived of all religious lib- 
erty, while his purse was at the mercy of a government 
which he had, and could have, no voice in coristituting. 
He therefore determined to waive the pursuits of science 
and wealth, for the more generous enterprise of achiev- 
ing civil and religious liberty. Had every mountain 
sparkled with precious ores, and every cavern been loaded 
\vith the richest minerals, they would have seemed like 
dross to the noble Child so long as the far greater bless- 
ings were unattainable, for which life itself was alone 

1 Baylie's Plymouth, part i. p. Hist. Coll. of Mass. vol. iv. p. 198. 
230. Sav. Winthrop, vol. ii. p. 261, n. i. 

2 Letter of William White, 2 



FROM SCHISM TO SECTARIANISM. 4<!21 

desirable. We cannot readily estimate the moral conr- part 
age necessary for such an undertaking. In a feebler > — >^ — 
state of the colony, Roger Williams, a " godly minister," 
had stood forth as the champion of religious liberty, and 
in less than one year had been driven, in the depth of 
winter, from the society of his countrymen into the wil- 
derness, blasted in fortune and ruined in character. Ho\^' 
much more serious was the attempt, when it had for its 
express object the establishment of the rights of the 
Churchmen of England. 

An occasion soon oflfered for the hardy enterprise of Gross tyi- 
Chiid. "Some agitations fell out" at the little town ofthemagis- 

... . . trates. 

Hingham, in their military elections, which called for the 
interference of the civil authority. The magistrates, as 1644. 
usual, took part against the people, and the people peti- 
tioned the general court, declaring that their liberties, as 
" English freeborn members of the state," were placed in 
jeopardy.^ The petitioners, instead of being redressed, 
were fined one hundred pounds ; for the deputies, though 
they struggled long against the arbitrary determination 
of the magistrates, were forced to yield when they threat- 
ened to "call in the help of the elders."^ Foremost 
among these petitioners was Peter Hobart, the elder of 
Hingham, a man " of a Presbyterial spirit," ^ and, there- 
fore, unpopular with his ministerial brethren. When 
called upon to pay his proportion of the fine, he desired 1645 
to see the warrant, and thereupon raised weighty objec- 

1 New England's Jonas, etc. power of the magistrates than them- 

2 Sav. Winthrop, vol. ii. p. 227. selves well liked of." Further on, 
"They knew," says the worthy jour- he continues, "they did not dare to 
nalist, " that many of the elders un- trust the elders with the cause." 
derstood the cause, and were more 3 Hubbard. Of this elder, John- 
careful to uphold the honor and son lugubriously sings : — 

" Oh, Hubbard, why do'st leave thy native soile ? 

Is't not to war 'mongst Christ's true worthies here? 
What, wilt give out ? Thou'lt loose thy former toyle, 

And starve Christ's flock, which he hath purchast deare." 
36 



March. 



422 PROGRESS OF THE ELDERS 

tions. He objected that the warrant was insufficient, 
because it was not issued in his Majesty's name ; that the 
^•overnment in Massachusetts was " not more than a cor- 
poration in England," and that it had no power to put 
men to death by virtue of the patent, nor " to do other 
things it did ; " that, for himself, " he had neither horn 
nor hoof of his own, nor any thing wherewith to buy his 
children clothes," but that, if " he must pay the fine, he 
would pay it in books ; " and that, having seriously con- 
sidered what he had done, it did not seem to him amiss ; 
and that if he had broken any wholesome law, not repug- 
nant to the laws of England, he was ready to submit to 
censure.^ For this temperate remonstrance, Mr. Hub- 
1646. bard was tried and convicted of sedition,'^ and, being 
heavily fined, was ordered to give bonds for his future 
good behavior. 
Child and Thesc remarkable proceedings inspired Child with 

RT'XVGrick 

with other's, courage, and furnished him with a pretext. Through his 

petition. . . . , i i i i 

May. active agency a petition was drawn up, addressed to the 
general court, which stated with glowing detail the griev- 
ances under which the remonstrants and others labored. 
Thanking the government of the colony for its " constant 
vigilance and continual care " over tlie charge committed 
to them by the Almighty, the petitioners apologize for 
the liberty they are about to take, in spreading before 
" the honored court " the " many and great sins of the 
place." The Lord hath placed you, they declared, at the 
helm of these plantations, endowed with eminent gifts fit 
for such honorable callings. You are, therefore, able to 
foresee the clouds which hang over our heads, and the 
storms and tempests which threaten tlie poor handful 

' New England's Jonas, etc. was that he had taken the freeman's 
Sav. Winthrop. oath. 

2 The great burden of his oflence 



FROM SCHISM TO SECTARIANISM. 423 

intrusted to your care. Notwithstanding-, they proceed, part 
we, who are under deck, although unfit for high employ- ■^-^ — ' 
ment, can perceive those leaks which will inevitably sink 
this weak and ill-compacted vessel, if not opportunely 
prevented. 

Having- thus adroitly introduced themselves to the Pray for 

I'll- ''^^ la.'ws of 

notice of the general court, they go on to detail the England. 
nature of the leaks which they think threaten the ship 
of state. And, first, they declare that the territory and 
immunities of the company were granted by " his Maj- 
esty of England," who, besides incorporating the com- 
pany, conferred upon the corporators the power of making 
laws not repugnant to the laws of the realm, and also 
provided for the administering of the oath of allegiance 
to all persons who should leave England to settle in this 
portion of his dominions. Nevertheless, they aver that, 
although they are Englishmen, they are not governed by 
the laws of England, nor by any body of laws which 
insures to them their lives, liberties, and estates, accord- 
ing to their natural rights as freeborn subjects of Eng- 
land. By reason of which, much fear is entertained lest 
an arbitrary government is intended ; many jealousies 
spring up on account of illegal commitments and impris- 
onments, and they all live in uncertainty of the things 
they enjoy ; whether their lives, liberties, or estates. 
Wherefore they pray that the wholesome laws of their 
native country may be established, which are not only 
agreeable to their English tempers, but are binding on 
all by charter and the oaths of allegiance. For they 
cannot tell whether the Lord has blessed many in these 
parts with such eminent political gifts, that they can con- 
trive better laws and customs than the wisest of their 
nation have with great care composed, and after many 
hundred years of experience found equal and just. 



4*24 PROGRESS OF THE ELDERS 

They also desire that, since they are compelled to con- 
tribute to the support of government, they may have that 
civinib- civil liberty and freedom to which they are entitled as 
*^^'' Englishmen. And they request these rights, unshackled 

by oaths and covenants not warranted by charter, and 
which are in conflict with the oath of allegiance formerly 
enforced on all. They declare their willingness to take 
such oaths and covenants as are consistent with the duty 
they owe to God and the king, and are framed according 
to the customs of other English corporations ; but they 
are unwilling to be rent from their native country though 
far distant from it, and glory to be accounted but as 
rushes of that land, so that they may continue to write 
that they and theirs are English. 
As Church- Finally, they desire that, since they are compelled to 
forrciig-' Contribute to the support of the elders, and are denied 
erty. ministrations of their own, they may, at least, partake 

of the benefit of their labors. They, like many others, 
are members of the Church of England, and neither 
their lives nor conversations are scandalous in the sight of 
men. Yet, though they are compelled, under heavy pen- 
alties, to be present at the public worship established by 
law, they are denied all the privileges of the Gospel. 
Thus, the members of the Church of England are like 
sheep scattered in the wilderness, without a shepherd, in 
a sad and forlorn condition ; and, unless their pressing 
wants are speedily relieved, they will be compelled to 
petition parliament for redress. But, they conclude, if 
you grant us our humble requests, the blessing of God 
will rest upon the plantation. The Gospel, now much 
darkened, will break forth as the sun at noonday. Com- 
nierce and husbandry, now^ languishing, will go bravely 
on. Hands, hearts, and purses, now straightened, will 
be freely opened for public and honorable services. Strife 



FROM SCHISM TO SECTARIANISM. 425 

and contentions, now rife, will be abated ; taxes and sesses parj 
will be lightened ; the burdens of the state will become a ^ — •' — 
pleasure.^ 

Such was the spirit of this admirable paper. It Spirit of 

^ . . ^ ^ the peti- 

proceeded not from zealous Royalists or High Church- tion. 
men. " The petitioners were of a linsiwolsie disposi- 
tion ; some for prelacy, some for presbytery, and some for 
plebsbytery." ^ With few exceptions, perhaps, the sig- 
natures it received would have been affixed without a 
shudder to the death-warrants of Charles the First and 
William of Canterbury. There was no prayer for the 
introduction of ceremonies or superstitions. There was 
no allusion to bishops or surplices. The remonstrants 
simply begged for a participation in those solemn ordi- 
nances, which the elders, as commissioned priests of the 
Church, had authority to celebrate. Without starting 
useless scruples and doubts as to the validity of their 
official acts, they wished to make the best of the circum- 
stances in which they were placed. To further this 
object, they recalled to the minds of the magistrates the 
oath of allegiance, " once taken by all." They dwelt 
upon the danger of separation from the State as well as 
the Church, and showed how one would follow from the 
other. By touching allusions to their native country, by 
some, they say, already " stiled foreign," they endeavored 
to check the rampant spirit of Puritanism.^ 

But what reason had Child and Maverick to expect a 
better fate than Roger Williams 1 True, they sought 
for that which belonged to them as freeborn subjects of 



* See the petition at length, in 2 Johnson. 
New England's Jonas Cast Up, etc. 3 The petition, says the liberal 
It was signed by Robert Child, Bancroft, was " the luanton spirit of 
Thomas Fowle, Samuel Maverick, insult " .' / / 
Thomas Burton, David Yale, John 
Smith, and John Dand. 

36* 



4-26 PROGRESS OF THE ELDERS 

CHAP. England, while Williams could base his cause on charity 

,^ alone. The latter, at least as far as his religion was 

concerned, could only beg" as a favor what the former 
demanded as a right. But the efforts of both were lev- 
elled at the ambitious pride of the elders, who, had they 
listened to their entreaties, would have undermined their 
own power and influence. They did not sacrifice their 
comfortable livings in England for the purpose of ac- 
knowledging fellowship with Separatists, or of sharing 
their newly-acquired spoils with Churchmen. 
Indignation The petition " was very ill resented." ^ Preferred 
elders. towards the end of the session of the general court, all 
action upon it was suspended, in order that it might be 
brought to the notice of the elders. It was impossible 
to take any action on a movement so important without 
consulting the oracles of the state. The petition con- 
tained truths of a perplexing nature ; but the embarrass- 
ment of the magistrates was soon relieved by the bold 
and unequivocal course of the elders. They inveighed 
against the petitioners, in public and private ; the sound- 
ing boards of their pulpits reverberated with their bitter 
invectives. Their sermons were " eked out in defama- 
tory declamations ' against the " disturbers of the coun- 
try," whom they compared to the " Sons of Belial, to 
Judases, and to the sons of Corah." The petition, they 
declared, was " full of malignancy, and subvertive both 
to Church and Connnonwealth in their foundations." 
The magistrates readily fell in with these sentiments, and 
" spoke in the same key." ^ " One publicly declared it 
was a wicked petition, full of malignancy, and how far it 
reached he knew not, pointing at a capital law " against 



I Hubbard. 2 New England's Jonas, etc. 

Hutchinson. 



FROM SCHISM TO SECTARIANISM. 427 

sedition and conspiracy.^ Their affecting' farewell to the part 
Church of England was already forgotten ; their God- ~ — ^ — -' 
speeds had become anathemas. It was a pleasant thing 
to preside over the helm of a growing- commonwealth, 
and to witness new institutions, new laws, and new cus- 
toms budding forth in the wilderness, and presenting to 
the world new political combinations. Their zeal for 
the purity of the Gospel had degenerated into political 
religionism. 

When the court affain met, a committee was appointed General 

^ _ * ^ court an- 

to answer a remonstrance which was unanswerable. Its swer the 

petition. 

effects upon the public mind were dreaded by the elders, November. 
and " a great deal of pains was taken in the answer, to 
make it evident to the world that the petitioners had no 
cause so to remonstrate."^ "These are the champions," 
was the contemptuous reply, " who must represent the 
body of non-freemen. If this be their head, sure they 
have an unsavory head not to be seasoned with much 
salt." But the court did not confine its action to answer- 
ing the " factious remonstrance." The committee were 
required not only to answer the petition, but to manufac- 
ture out of it grounds for accusation. In the mean time, 
the petitioners were summoned to appear at their bar, 
and were required to enter into bonds to abide the judg- 
ment of the court upon the forthcoming accusation. 
What is our crime"? asked Child. Is it penal to peti- 
tion in Massachusetts for the redress of grievances \ 
You shall know your offence in due season, was the 



1 New England's Jonas, etc. tion. The language of Winthrop 

2 Hubbard. A parallel was at- is remarkable. " A committee was 
tempted, says Hutchinson, between appointed to examine the petition, 
the fundamental laws of England and out of it to dra'vj a charge, which 
and those of the colony, which in was done," etc. Sav. Winthrop, 
some parts of it is liable to excep- vol. ii. p. 285. 



428 PROGRESS OF THE ELDERS 

CHAP, reply of the puzzled Winthrop ; and, in the mean time, 
^--^ — ' it is sufficient for you to learn that you have " laid a 
great scandal upon the country." We deny your juris- 
diction, returned Child, and shall appeal to the commis- 
sioners in England. But, said the governor, we allow of 
no appeal, nor is any allowed by the charter.^ 
Trial of the The trial soon took place. Out of the three heads of 

petitioners, ^ 

torsedi- remonstrance, contained in the petition, twelve long and 
formidable articles of accusation had been " drawn " by 
the committee.^ Scandal and sedition were worked up in 
every possible variety and combination, public and pri- 
vate, express and implied. Had the scales been evenly 
balanced in this singular court of justice, an event which 
happened in the course of the trial would have caused an 
immediate preponderance against the petitioners. One 
of the defendants,^ going hastily with a copy of the accu- 
sation to confer with Dr. Child, " fell down, and lay in 
the cold near half an hour." * This unhappy accident 
displayed in a signal manner the wrath of an offended 
Providence. The petitioners were convicted, and sen- 
tenced to pay exorbitant fines. It was offered that, if 
they would confess the charge of sedition, and " ingen- 
uously acknowledge their miscarriage," their fines should 
be remitted ; but they indignantly refused, and declared 
their intention of appealing to parliament. The avowal 
of this determination caused much " alarm," and led to 
further action on the part of the elders. Child truly 
said, that " they were masters rather than ministers." 
Stirred up by their zeal, the magistrates rifled the trunks 
and papers of the discomfited Churchmen, and ordered 

1 Sav. Winthrop. Hubbard. whom nothing is known except his 

2 Sav. Winthrop, vol. ii. p. 285. agency in this movement. 

3 This was Thomas Burton, of * Sav. Winthrop. Hubbard. 



FROM SCHISM TO SECTARIANISM. 429 

the most active of their number to be closely imprisoned, part 
until the opportunity that then offered for their departure ^ — y — - 
to England had passed.^ 

The sequel of this persecution is only important as it The eiders 

^ _ ^ .... denounce 

throws further liffht upon the schismatic spirit of the the peti- 

, , . tioners, for 

elders. Determined to bring the cause before parlia- appealing. 
ment, two of the petitioners sailed as speedily as possible 
for England. The object of the voyage could not have 
been concealed, even if it had been desirable ; and the 
occasion was seized by the elders to pour forth fierce 
invectives from their pulpits. They denounced the object 
of the complainants, as unholy ; they inveighed against 
the Church of England, calling it Egypt's Babylon ; and 
declared that from that Church none could go to heaven. 
They asserted that the only divine form of governing 
churches was Independency. And they called upon the 
shipmaster, with whom the appellants were to sail, to 
remember that if any of his passengers should carry 
writings or complaints against the people of God, they 
would be as Jonas in the ship. " I do not advise you 
to throw the persons overboard," said Cotton, " but their 
writmgs. 

The prophecy contained in this warning was safe and 
sure. A winter's voyage across the Atlantic must al- 
ways be stormy. The appellants encountered tempests 
and gales, and another extraordinary miracle was per- 
formed in favor of the elders of Massachusetts.^ During 

1 Sav. Winthrop. Hubbard. Two raft, which left Hingham for Boston 
of them were refused bail, because on a fast day specially appointed on 
" their offence was in nature cap- account of Dr. Child, was carrjed 
ital." away by a tempest ; the horse of 

2 New England's Jonas, etc. Mr. Winslow, who was appointed 

3 The number of miraculous in- agent of the colony to counteract 
terpositions, during the pendency of the appeal of Child to parliament, 
this cause, would have astonished a died as he was riding to Boston ; 
whole order in the Roman Church, and the series was concluded by the 
A man was lamed for months ; a one stated in the text. 



430 PROGRESS OF THE ELDERS 

CHAP. " a sad storm at Land's End," the papers of one of the 
'-^^ — appellants, who was " as sick in his conscience for re- 
morse as he was in his carcase for the working of the 
sea," were, by the entreaty of a "well-affected passenger," 
thrown overboard, and, soon after, the tempest ceased.^ 
Unhappily for the reputation of this wonder, the papers 
thus destroyed were of little importance in the case. 
William Vassal, the other appellant, who was " of a 
more resolved and tough humor," retained quietly his 
manuscripts ; and, though the remainder of the voyage 
was tempestuous, the ship finally reached England in 
safety. It is almost needless to add, that the appeal was 
ineffectual. Superstition was a powerful auxiliary to 
bigotry ; but the elders, too wise to trust wholly in mira- 
cles, sent an agent to England, who, " by his prudent 
management," and the " credit and esteem he was in 
with many leading members of parliament," prevented the 
operation of justice.^ The only satisfaction obtained by 
the appellants was the publication of their papers at Lon- 
don. To the amazement of the good people of Massa- 
chusetts, the invective of their elders, in this instance at 
least, proved to be without the divine assent ; and the 
baffled complainants took the ludicrous revenge of giving 
the history of their sufferings and persecutions to the 
world, under the name of " New England's Jonas Cast 
Up at London." ^ 

Such was the welcome which Massachusetts gave her 
" Dear Mother," after a separation of only sixteen years. 
In that short time, the elders had so leavened the whole 
lump of transatlantic Puritanism, that they hurled at her 



1 Hubbard. "The Salamander; " pointing there- 

2 Hutchinson. in, says Hubbard, at Mr. Vassal ; a 

3 This was answered by Mr. man who never was at rest but when 
Winslow, in a pamphlet entitled he was in the fire of contention. 



FROM SCHISM TO SECTARIANISM. 431 

words of reproach, abuse, and menace. Sir William part 
Berkeley, of Virginia, mig^ht well dread that class of ^--r-^ 
ministers in a colony, who exhaust the capacity of relig- 
ion in pulpit declamation. Independent of all ecclesias- 
tical authority, possessing their places only by a controll- 
ing influence over the people, and overflowing with that 
peculiar ambition which is generated by spiritual pride, 
the principles of religious conservatism can never receive 
protection from the ranks of the preachers. The Pulpit, 
unless sheltered by the Altar, becomes a democratic toy. 
Its strength alone consists in its power of affording nov- 
elty ; and, deprived of this, it may become the stand of 
an auctioneer, or the throne of a caucus. 

From the period of this famous persecution until the Chmch 

T» • 1 -r» • r TK/T 1 feeling in 

Restoration, the Puritans of Massachusetts were unmo- Massachu- 
lested by Churchmen. They were occupied by the follies Restora- 
of Familists, the ravings of Baptists, and the " blas- 
phemies " of Quakers. The scourge, the prison, and the 
gallows, shut out the view of the cross. The generation 
that beheld, from the eastern shores of New England, 
the return of the Stuarts, was better acquainted with the 
scarlet drapery of Rome than the decent adornments of 
the English Church. But of either they knew little, 
beyond the bloody provisions of a Puritan statute, or the 
severe denunciations of a Puritan pulpit. They had no 
literature but sermons, no theology but the Ten Com- 
mandments, no history but the dealings of the Star- 
Chamber and Commission Courts, no saint but the ideal 
one of Puritanism. The ignorance of the people kept 
even pace with the prejudice of the elders ; and while the 
former had not so much as heard of the noble designs 
which begot their flourishing commonwealth, the latter 
learned to make but little distinction between the stately 
majesty of Rome and the bruised and outlawed Church 



4*3^ PROGRESS OF THE ELDERS 

CHAP, which had hardly a cathedral where it could chant a Dc 
' — r^' Profimdis for its sad and fallen condition. 

The royal declaration from Breda was the death-knell 
of that intolerant system which had given birth to the 
colonies of New England. It was received in Massa- 
chusetts with apathy, for the consequences it involved 
were not at once foreseen. The king was not yet seated 
upon his throne, and the Church was not reinstated in 
its Anglo-Saxon home. Something might yet happen, 
which would show that the institutions of Massachusetts 
were under the divine protection.^ But such vague 
dreams were soon dispelled by unpleasant realities. While 
Massachusetts paused for further advices, Charles the 
Second ascended the throne of his ancestors, and began 
to turn his eyes towards the western shores of the Atlan- 
tic. He saw Virginia stretching out her arms to hail 
the return of her outlawed sovereign, while New Eng- 
land remained cold, sullen, and forbidding. The Puri- 
tans were hanging Quakers nearly at the same time that 
the Virginians were chanting Te Deums. From the one 
he heard shouts of loyalty and gladness ; from the other, 
complaints and lamentations. 
The elders The hollow ceremony of a " loyal address " and " gra- 
the restora- cious answcr" being finished. Puritanism buckled on its 
church. armor to contend with the Church. Alarming rumors 
sped across the ocean, of the restoration of the olden 
superstitions. " Episcopacy, Common Prayer, bowing 
at the name of Jesus, the sign of the cross in baptism, 
the altar, and organs," ^ were causing " fainting " in the 
hearts of the colonial agents at Whitehall. The throne 
was surrounded by the friends of the Church, and by the 



I Hutchinson, vol. i. p. 194. 2 Letter ot John Leverett to Mas- 

sachusetts. 



FROM SCHISM TO SECTARIANISM. 433 

enemies of Puritanism. Nearly every class of so-called part 
Christians in Protestant Christendom had something- to ' — y — ' 
employ the ingenuity of the agents from Massachusetts. 
Of these alarming facts the general court was kept in- 
formed, and fears began to be entertained of " a change 
in the form of their government, both Church and 
state." -^ 

It was amid surmise and doubt that the king was pro- They assert 
claimed in the streets of Boston, and Eliot proscribed ciiaracter 
for his work against monarchical forms of government.^ ism. 
But these acts were accompanied by others of an equally 
decided nature, which materially qualified their operation. 
The general court appointed a committee, composed of 
elders, magistrates, and deputies, to declare the chartered 
rights of the colony ; and the committee reported a series 
of articles, which asserted a real independence in their 
civil and religious system. As for their liberties, they 
avowed that " any imposition prejudicial to the country, 
and contrary to their own laws not repugnant to the laws 
of England," would be an infringement of their rights. 
And, concerning their allegiance, they declared that they 
" ought to seek the peace and prosperity of the king, in 
propagating the Gospel, defending and upholding the true 
Christian or Protestant religion, according to the faith 
given by our Lord Jesus Christ in his Word." ^ Of the 
meaning of these propositions, they, of course, were to 
be the judges, and not the king or parliament. With 
their usual presumption, they made Christianity synony- 
mous with Puritanism, and claimed theirs to be the true 
faith at the same moment that their communion was 



1 Hutchinson. Letter of Lord 2 '< The Christian Common- 
Say to the Governor and Magistrates wealth." 

of Massachusetts, July, i66i. 3 Hutchinson, vol. i. Appendix, 

PP- 455. 456- 
37 



4'34< PROGRESS OF THE ELDERS 

CHAP, distracted with doubts concerning the only entrance 
into the Christian Church, the sacrament of Holy Bap- 



V. 



tism 



1 



Refuse to Massachusetts soon received orders to send agents to 
use of the England, to make answer to the complaints which were 

Common • ^^ r ^ • i-i 

Prayer. contmually preferred agamst the mtolerance of her gov- 

1662. ernment. An elder and a magistrate were selected for 

this delicate mission, who departed amidst the fears and 

anxieties of their constituents. But in a few months 

September, they returned with " the king's most gracious letter," 
pardoning the past, and establishing the Puritan construc- 
tion of the charter on certain equitable conditions. In 
addition to the complete acknowledgment of his sov- 
ereignty, he required " that freedom and liberty should 
be given to all such as desired, to use the Book of Com- 
mon Prayer, and perform their devotions in the manner 
established in England, and that they might not undergo 
any prejudice thereby ; " and " that all persons of good 
and honest lives and conversations should be admitted to 
the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, according to the 
Book of Common Prayer, and their children to Bap- 
tism." ^ Freedom and liberty of conscience were " the 
chief ground of the Plantation," said the trembling Puri- 
tans, deprecating the royal anger ; and Charles " gra- 
ciously " recalled to their minds the eternal justice of this 
principle, which had now become the law of his empire. 
But so far from recognizing the righteousness of the 
king's command, they expressly disobeyed his injunctions, 
considering them " grievous." Although they " readily 
granted " permission to French Calvinists to become 
members of their commonwealth,^ they, at the same time, 

1 " Except a man be born of water 2 Hutchinson. Hubbard, z Mass. 
and of the Spirit, he cannot enter Hist. Coll. vol. viii. p. 52. 
into the kingdom of God." 3 Hutchinson, vol. i. p. 206. In 



FROM SCHISM TO SECTARIANISM. 435 

denied the blessings of liberty to their own kindred and part 

countrymen. ' — v — 

The act of uniformity inundated Massachusetts with a Again 

rGfllSG to 

fresh wave of Puritanism. The elders were strengthened aiiow 

® Churcli- 

in numbers and zeal. Month after month rolled away, men lib- 

. erty of 

and instead of diligently studying the great and wise conscience. 
principle which was asserting its prerogative in the Old 
World, they endeavored to prop up their spiritual des- 
potism in the wilderness, by inviting over the most 
learned and influential of their party in England.^ But 
they were at length startled by the rumor that royal 1664. 
commissioners were about to visit the colonies, and that 
the investigation of affairs in Massachusetts would form 
a portion of their duties. A day of fasting and prayer 
was appointed, " to implore the mercy of God," and pre- May. 
cautions were adopted to prevent any surprise upon the 
liberties of the colony, by armed crews from the ships of 
war. The commissioners, one of whom had been before 
stigmatized as a " rank Papist," ^ and another of whom 
was a son of that Maverick, who, a few years before, 
had been deprived of religious liberty, followed close June. 
upon the rumor. There was no need for precautions 
against military stratagem. Their errand was more 
glorious. Armed only with the principles of justice and 
the law, they came to loose the bonds of a tyranny at 
once unrighteous and illegal. They came to open the 
way to the Font and the Altar, for those who were pre- 
vented access to either. For, said they, " it is very 
scandalous that any persons should be debarred the exer- 



1686, the French Protestants in Bos- l Hutchinson, vol. i. p. 207. 2 

ton were numerous enough to organ- Mass. Hist. Coll. vol. i. Letter to 

ize a society, and they erected a small Dr. Owen. 

brick meeting-house in what is now ~ Sir Robert Carr. See Letter 

School Street. Em. Hist, of First of Norton. Hutchinson, vol. i. p. 

Church, p. 137, note. 207. 



4f36 PROGRESS OF THE ELDERS 

cise of their religion according to the laws and customs 
of England, by those who are indulged with the liberty 
of being of what religion they please." ^ 

The success of this commission has been considered 
in another place. The Book of Common Prayer was 
viewed with as much distrust as a Roman missal. While 
the colonists made earnest professions of loyalty and sub- 
mission, not a solitary privilege could be extorted from 
them in favor of the Church. They clung to their intol- 
erance with such ardor, that had the king himself moved 
his capital from London to Boston, he would have been 
debarred the enjoyment of religious liberty. The gates of 
heaven were scrupulously guarded against all but the pre- 
vailing sect. The only reply vouchsafed by the general 
court to the royal command to make the rights of con- 
science free as air was, that " they had commended to the 
ministry and people the Word of the Lord for their rule." ^ 
We supposed, was the keen retort, " that the king and 
the Church understood the Word of God as well as the 
Massachusetts Corporation." ^ But however natural was 
this supposition, its sarcasm was more palatable than its 
truth ; and, after enduring a variety of insults, the com- 
missioners referred the whole subject to his Majesty's 
wisdom, and retired from the colony in disgust. 

Perhaps the rude treatment experienced by the com- 
missioners was j)romoted by their contempt for the cold 
formalities of Puritanism. Much they saw in New Eng- 
land to excite their warmest admiration. Every town 
numbering fifty householders was furnished with a common 



1 " It sounds strange," says Green- ii. Where Is the arrogance in the 

wood, "to hear Charles II. reading style? 

a lesson on religious freedom to the 2 Hutchinson. 

Pilgrims ; but it was a good lesson, 3 j Mass. Hist. Coll. vol. viii. 

though delivered in an arrogant p. 76. 
style." Hist, of King's Chapel, p. 



FROM SCHISM TO SECTARIANISM. 437 

school, in order that " learning might not be buried in part 
the graves of their forefathers." And where " the Lord ' — y — 
had increased them to the number of one hundred," it 
was ordered that they should set up a grammar school, 
that youth might be fitted for the university.^ Trade 
was active, agriculture prosperous, and the marks of the 
wilderness were receding further and further towards the 
west. There was every outward sign of a happy and 
fortunate people, who, with the religion, had cast off the 
habits of the Old World, and who desired nothing more 
criminal than to remain unmolested. Unhappily, there 
was another view of this pleasing picture, which could 
not be obscured by the glories with which Puritanism 
had surrounded itself. If the schools trained fanatics, if 
commerce fattened on the violation of the laws, if agri- 
culture was enriched by the blood of the Indian, if the 
meeting-house was the focus of disloyalty, and if all 
these held their place by usurpation from the Church and 
crown, there was cause enough for interference. And 
such was the tyrannical sway maintained by the elders, 
that the commissioners themselves were rudely assailed 
for not conforming to the Sabbatical fanaticism of their 
religion.^ 

The solitary priest who accompanied the commission, 
in the capacity of chaplain, may not have been confined 
on Sundays, like D'Aulney's friars, to the governor's 
garden,^ although he must have been an object of equal 



1 Colony Laws, May, 1847. 3 See in Sav. Winthrop and in 

2 The Puritan Sabbath com- Hubbard's History an account of 
menced at sunset on Saturday even- the reception of the embassy of 
ing. It was during one of these D'Aulney, who, "having the lib- 
evenings that the commissioners were erty of the governor's garden on the 
most rudely and inhospitably inter- Lord's Day," are represented tp 
fered with by a constable, when en- have "earned themselves soberly." 
joying the converse of their friends. 

Hutchinson, vol. i. p. 232. 

37* 



438 PROGRESS OF THE ELDERS 

CHAP, curiosity to the people. There was no altar in New 
^^ — ■< — ' England for his ministrations ; and the most solemn 
sacrament of the Church must have been celebrated by 
him in the parlor of some cosmopolitan citizen, or in 
the humble apartment of some inn. That he was self- 
denying, is evinced by his accompanying a dreaded com- 
mission in an invidious task ; and that he was unambi- 
tious, may be gathered from the facts, that his name is 
more obscure than that of the obscurest Quaker, and 
that his memory has been spared the denunciation of the 
Puritan historian. He was the last presbyter of the 
Church of England who visited the Puritan Common- 
wealth. When next her ministers landed at the wharves 
in Boston, they planted their feet upon the soil of a royal 
province. 
Randolph The riffhts of the Church and the cause of liberty 

opens the , ^ , "L 

way for the continued to be urgfed by the crown, without success. 

Church. . ^ 

The sovereign asked as a favor what he was soon to 
command as simple justice. Religious liberty was begin- 
ning to be enjoyed throughout all the British dominions, 
save in the Puritan Colonies only ; and the system which 
claimed to be peculiarly a system of and for the people, 
was the last to recognize the rights of conscience. With 
that blindness which is often the accompaniment of selfish- 
ness, Massachusetts refused to see the folly and incon- 
1676. sistency of her position. But the arrival of the zealous 
Randolph, bearing instructions " to inquire into the state 
of the colony," prepared the way for the introduction of 
the principles of liberty. Nothing escaped the penetra- 
tion of this ardent loyalist. With activity that never 
wearied, with loyalty that never abated, and with courage 
that nothing could daunt, he " spied out " the glaring 

1 Hutch. Coll. of Papers, p. 520. 



FROM SCHISM TO SECTARIANISM. 4S9 

inconsistencies of Puritanism ; and, while his chief con- 
cern was with the business of the crown, he was not 
unmindful of the interests of the Church. Such was the 
effect of his most difficult mission, that, in the year of 
his arrival in Boston, high treason was made a capital i*^''^ 
offence ; the oath of allegiance, which had been suspended 
for more than thirty years, was again annually pronounced 
in the town hall ; and last, though not least, a declaration 
was made by the general court, that " no persons should 
be hindered from performing divine service according to 
the Church of England." ^ 

The importance of this reluctant concession, forced 
from the general court by the active zeal of Randolph, 
cannot be over estimated. Had the Church been erected 
upon the ruins of the charter, the celebration of her holy 
sacraments might have been the signal for riots, and we 
at this day have been unknown to her sacred communion. 
Men would have confounded the erection of the cross 
with the overthrow of civil liberty, and the altar would 
have been regarded as the throne of despotism. Happily 
the sentiments of hereditary animosity were anticipated 
by the moral courage of Randolph. " Hundreds, whose 
children were not baptized," and " as many more who 
never, since they came out of England, had received the 
Sacrament " of the Eucharist, were famishing for the 
Bread of Life.^ The pressing wants of this helpless 
company appealed irresistibly to the kindly heart of the 
agent, who willingly encountered calumny and reproach 
to gratify their reasonable desires, and who consented to 
figure as infamous upon the pages of Puritan history, if he 
could shelter from intolerance his brethren of the Church. 



1 Hutchinson. of London. Hutch. Coll. of Papers, 

2 Randolph's Letter to the Bishop p. 538. 



44<0 PROGRESS OF THE ELDERS 

Thus, before the destiny of the charter was known, the 
claims of religious liberty were acknowledged, and Puri- 
tanism received its first lesson in freedom at the hands of 
an English Churchman. 
Presses for But it was no part of Randolph's design to gain an 
sober min- emptv triumph. Men less disinterested would have been 

isters. ^ •' ^ 

satisfied with having broken the bonds of tyranny, and 
spared themselves the odium of encountering a violent 
prejudice. This loyal Churchman, however, sacrificing 
popularity and reputation, pursued the nobler course of 
completing, at all risks, the work he had commenced. 
The American Colonies, annexed by prescription to the 
See of London, formed a portion of that venerable dio- 
cese, and were within the jurisdiction of its bishop. To 
1682. that prelate ^ Randolph addressed his urgent entreaties 
for " able and sober ministers." He promised that they 
would be received by " all honest men with hearty Chris- 
tian respects and kindness ; " and urged that the bishop 
had " good security for their civil treatment by the con- 
trary party, so long as their agents are in England." ^ 
Obstacles R was unfortunate for the Colonial Church that the 

in the way. 

English Episcopate was a part of the machinery of the 
state. In the ponderous movements of the body politic, 
the zeal which had carried the cross from Rome to Can- 
terbury was in danger of growing cold. The cure of 
souls was sometimes forgotten in political intrigues ; and 
the crook and mitre dwindled in comparison with the 
mace and coronet. Distracted by sectarianism at home, 
the state was indifferent to the true glory of the Church ; 
and the latter, embarrassed by her connection with the 
state, abandoned the colonies to a jurisdiction, of which 



1 Wilberforce's Hist, of Amer. 2 Letter to the Bishop of London. 
Church, p. 136. Hutch. Coll. of Papers, p. 538. 



FROM SCHISM TO SECTARIANISM. 441 

none knew the origin or authority.^ As the care of the 
Colonial Church formed no part of the ordinary duties 
of the Bishop of London, his " power over these distant 
provinces was neither certain or well defined." And 
perhaps the uncertainty was the greater from the fact, 
that English America was more properly within the 
province of the Archbishop of Canterbury, who, as the 
Primate of the whole English Church, was guardian of 
her spiritualities, and bound to provide for the obscurest 
colony that claimed England as its mother country. At 
all events, such was the unhappy operation of the parlia- 
mentary element in the Church, that no adequate provision 
could be made for the religious care of the colonies with- 
out the cooperation of the State ; and such was the indif- 
ference of the state, that the bishops were at last com- 
pelled to form an association with their clergy and laity, 
and to apply, like a common company of traders, for an 1701. 
act of incorporation, to enable them to transact business.^ 
These difficulties, sufficient of themselves to dampen the 
zeal of the most ardent, were not all. A greater obstacle 
was in the colony itself. Massachusetts was essentially a 
hostile as well as a missionary field. A mission among 
the warlike tribes who roamed in the regions of the 
interior, would have promised a better harvest. Simple 
ignorance is a feeble adversary ; but, when fortified by 
prejudice, it becomes invulnerable. New England had 
grown up out of exile, superstition, bigotry, and blood- 



1 Wilberforce says, that the most 2 Lord Clarendon once prevailed 

probable account attributes it to the on Charles II. to appoint a bishop 

heartyconcurrenceof the then Bishop for Virginia, with general jurisdic- 

of London, in the earliest schemes tion over the other colonies ; but a 

of the Virginia Company, for estab- change of ministers cut short the 

lishing the Church amongst their set- scheme. See Mc Vicar's Life of 

tiers. This led to his being requested Hobart, pp. 177-218. Also Wil- 

to find and appoint their first clergy, berforce's Hist, of Amer. Church, 

etc. p. 151. 



442 PROGRESS OF THE ELDERS 

CHAP, shed, and, as opposition descended from father to son, 
^-'-Y — ' it grew from disHke into hatred. There were no funds 
for the support of any other ministry than the congrega- 
tional. The intolerant system of Puritanism licked up 
the substance of all alike to maintain the established re- 
ligion. The Churchman was bound to contribute equally 
with the Quaker, the Baptist, and the Infidel, to support 
a ministry whose ordinations he knew to be invalid, and 
in whose questionable offices he was not allowed to par- 
take. At a period in the English Church when self- 
denial had hardly become a fault, we cannot much wonder 
that the uninviting- field in Massachusetts was for some 
time unoccupied. 
Arbitrary Randolph, howcvcr, did not cease his entreaties until 
Randolph, they had been in some measure answered. The main 
obstacle now in the ^^'ay of his scheme was how a priest- 
hood should be maintained.^ The few Churchmen, for 
whose benefit he was negotiating, had not tlie means 
adequate to the purpose, and he knew that any appeals to 
public sympathy would be worse than useless. Exas- 
perated at the intolerance under which Churchmen and 
others ^ had labored, from the very settlement of the col- 
ony, he urged to the Bishop of London, that " a sufficient 
maintenance might be raised for divers ministers out of 
the estates of those whose treasons had forfeited them to 
his Majesty." He also suggested that " a part of that 
money sent over hither, and pretended to be expended 
among the Indians, may be ordered to go towards that 
charge." And, as a further inducement to the undertak- 
ing, he avowed the willingness of the people for whom 

1 Letter to the Bishop of London, minister of the Church of England, 

2 Perhaps, said Randolph to as to make the Quakers pay in your 
Hinckley, governor of Plymouth, colony. Letter to Hinckley. Hutch- 
it would be as reasonable to move inson, vol. i. p. 319, note. 

that your colony should pay our 



FROM SCHISM TO SECTARIANISM. 443 

he was pleading to contribute largely for the maintenance part 
of a ministry. But one thing, he added, will mainly * — ■■-^ 
help, " when no marriages hereafter shall be allowed 
lawful, except such as are made by the ministers of the 
Church of England." ^ 

These arbitrary plans of Randolph, provoked by his Anivai of 
indignation at the tyranny of the elders, were not des- Ratciiffe. 
tined to be carried into operation. Schemes of retaliation 
are always impolitic in affairs of religion ; and it would 
have been better that the introduction of the Church 
should have been postponed, than that it should have 
afforded the slightest real cause of offence. The hopes 
of Randolph were not destined to be realized, until some 
one should be discovered who would consent to rest his 
support upon the gratitude of his people and the smiles 
of Providence. At length, the year after James the 
Second ascended the throne, and while yet the forfeiture 
of the charter rendered the future destiny of the colony 
uncertain, The Rose frigate arrived at Boston, bearing a 1686. 
commission to Dudley, as the head of a provisional gov- ^^* 
ernment, and also the Reverend Robert Ratcliffe,^ with 
his surplice and Book of Common Prayer. The new 
administration was scarcely organized, when Ratcliffe 
waited on the council, formally announced the object of 
his mission, and requested that some place might be 
designated where he could immediately enter upon his 
sacred duties. Some members of the council, among 
whom was Randolph, suggested that one of the Congre- 
tional meeting-houses might be borrowed for this pur- 
pose. But this was hardly the measure to render Dudley 

1 Randolph's Letters. Hutch, timonials, brought with him a letter 

Coll. of Papers. from the Right Honorable the Lords 

~ A sober man, recommended by Committee of Trade. Hutch. Coll. 

my Lord of London, to be our min- of Papers, p. 549. Randolph's Let- 

ister, who, besides his lordship's tes- ter to the Archbishop of Canterbury. 



4f4t4f 



PROGRESS OF THE ELDERS 



Formation 
of the 
parisli of 
King's 
Chapel. 

June. 



Julv. 



Opposition 
of the 



01 

elders 



popular with his jealous countrymen ; and the more mod- 
est plan was substituted, of surrendering to the temporary 
occupation of the Church the library room in the east end 
of the town-house.^ 

These preliminaries adjusted, a little parish of the 
Church of England started at once into life. In less 
than one month from the arrival of Ratclifie, a complete 
Church was organized, with all its proper officers. A 
weekly offertory was established, to support its current 
expenses ; addresses were voted to the king, to implore 
his Majesty's favor ; and letters of similar import were 
sent to the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of 
London. A fortnight passed away, and the parish was 
able to promise Mr. Ratcliffe a salary of fifty pounds 
sterling, and also to engage that, if the chaplain of The 
Rose frigate would assist their rector, he should " receive 
for his pains twenty shillings a week." Measures were 
taken " to pass through the whole territory of his Maj- 
esty in New England, and therein to receive all such volun- 
tary donations, as all persons whatsoever shall be disposed 
to give us, for and towards the building of a church in 
Boston." And soon the growing company of worship- 
pers, straitened within the narrow limits of the " little 
room in the town-house," was forced to move to the 
Exchange, where, in the presence of a curious rabble, 
services were celebrated on Sundays, Wednesdays, and 
Fridays, and sacraments were administered as often as 
circumstances would allow.^ 

The strange and interesting spectacle presented on the 
Boston Exchange was not unattractive to the people. 



1 Greenwood's Hist, of King's p. 549. Mr. Ratclifie, says Dunton, 
Chapel. was an eminent preacher, and his ser- 

2 Records in Greenwood. Letter mons were useful and well dressed, 
of Randolph to the Archbishop of 2 Mass. Hist. Coll. vol. ii. p. 97. 
Canterbury. Hutch. Coll. of Papers, 



FROM SCHISM TO SECTARIANISM. 4t4f5 

though bitterly resented by the elders. The descendants 
of those Pilgrims, who declared that they did not sepa- 
rate from the Church of England, were strangers to her 
communion, and viewed her rites with mingled curiosity 
and distrust. To counteract such chance impressions as 
might be received by wayward or wandering Puritan 
youth, "great affronts" were offered to the humble efforts 
of the Church. The elders " railed in their pulpits 
against the English liturgy, in terms which few ministers 
would use now of the prayers of the most degraded 
heathen."^ They compared the courageous priest to 
the priests of Baal, and, with thundering denunciations, 
called the prayers and sacraments of the Church " leeks, 
garlic, and trash." Nor did they confine themselves to 
empty declamation. Persons were deprived of their 
means of subsistence for attending the superstitious ser- 
vices of the Church ; and it was openly given out by the 
Puritans, that tradesmen and mechanics, who so far 
trespassed against the principles of Independency, should 
be arrested by their creditors, or turned out of employ- 
ment.^ 

In the mean time, President Dudley with his council Difficulties 
pursued the policy of compromise, and dissatisfied all doiph. 
parties. His administration neither protected the Church 
nor befriended its opponents. Feelings of discourage- 
ment began to invade the mind of the indefatigable 
Randolph, " lest the small beginnings of the Church of 
England, settled here with great difficulty, should fall to 
the ground, and be lost for want of timely relief and 
countenance." ^ Many persons were prevented from 



1 Greenwood. 3 Letter to the Archbishop of 

2 Letters to the Archbishop of Canterbury. 
Canterbury. Hutch. Coll. of Papers. 

Hutch. Hist. vol. i. p. 319, note. 
38 



4'i<6 PROGRESS OF THE ELDERS 

encouraging- his efforts from fear of the consequences ; 
and he liimself felt crippled in his resources, though 
standing at the head of four hundred Churchmen, when 
confronting the general grief and indignation of the col- 
ony. His zeal was construed into hatred of liberty ; and 
his abhorrence of Puritanism into hatred of its followers 
and supporters. Arbitrary as were some of his plans, 
they were gentleness itself when compared with that iron 
system of intolerance which instigated them. But they 
were rather suggestions for others, than intended for any 
action of his own. To Randolph the Church owed its very 
existence in Massachusetts ; and it was this, rather than 
schemes for its support, which rendered him odious in 
the colony. To have made Puritanism support the 
Church, however impolitic, would have been but a fair 
retaliation upon the former, which first embodied this 
principle in a precedent ; but to bring in " the liturgy 
and ceremonies " was the most enormous of crimes, since 
it was the greatest of innovations.^ 
Andros Sevcu montlis rolled rapidly away, and " the bigoted 

elders in Papist," Audros, had superseded Dudley. The same day 
the Church, that he landed at Boston, he exhibited anxiety for the 
welfare of the Church. His first act was to publish his 
commission ; his second, to negotiate, in a friendly man- 
ner, for the better " accommodation of the Episcopal 
Society." In the library of the town house, he held a 
conference with the elders of Boston ; and, pointing out 
the homely wooden " forms," the humble desk which 
served as a pulpit, and the yet meaner table which was 
the only altar, appealed to their generosity, and requested 
that they would so arrange their services, that for a 
while, until the Church became able to " build a temple 

1 Letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury. 



FROM SCHISM TO SECTARIANISM. 44*7 

for the Lord," one meeting-house might be used for two part 
congregations, and better accommodation be afforded to ^-^^-^ 
the King's Chapel. Sir Edmund at this time httle knew 
the spirit with which he had to contend. His request, 
suggested by his anxiety for friendly intercourse with 
those who, his instincts told him, were his natural ene- 
mies, was churlishly refused ; ^ for so wide had now 
become the chasm between the Church of England and 
the schismatic Puritans, that the latter " could not, with 
a good conscience, consent that their meeting-houses should 
be used for the Common Prayer worship," when the 
former stooped to make the proposal.^ 

The Church, with its four hundred worshippers, the Arbitrary 
object of the prayers of many who dared not enter its Andros. 
humble portals, and at the head of which was the first 
royal governor of the colony, was forced to remain in 
" the small upper room." Already the duties of Rat- 
cliffe had become so arduous that an assistant minister ^ 
had been obtained from England ; and sometimes in the 
open air, at others in low and narrow apartments, the 
liturgy was read and the sacraments were administered, 
amid the murmurs of the elders and the hoots of the 
rabble. Randolph had early called the attention of the 
English Primate to the importance of building a church, 
and his views were adopted by Andros. But here again 
the zealous Churchmen were disappointed. No one could 
be found, among the owners of the thousand acres which 
formed the peninsula of Boston, who would part with a 
small spot of land suitable for a site. The argument 
used was, that they "would not set up that which the 



1 Mr. Mather and Mr. Willard not consent. See Greenwood's Hist. 

" thoroughly discoursed his excel- of King's Chapel, p. 38. 
lency about the meeting-houses, in 2 Sewall MSS. in Greenwood. 
great plainness, showing they could 3 Rev. Josiah Clarke. 



March. 



44i8 PROGRESS OF THE ELDERS 

CHAP, people of England came over to avoid." ^ Goaded by 
^ — ■/ — ■ the recollections of what the Church had suffered at the 
hands of the Puritans, on both sides of the Atlantic ; 
remembering- that Puritanism had acquired a foothold in 
Massachusetts only by a fraud upon the crown, and that 
it now owed all it possessed, its houses, lands, and 
wharves, to the clemency of the sovereign who was the 
temporal Head of the Church it so needlessly trampled 
1687. on, Andros at last resolved to exert his power. On 
Wednesday in Passion Week, Randolph, at the request 
of the governor, applied for the keys of the Old South, 
in order that the services of the Church might be cele- 
brated with due solemnity ; and, the request being again 
refused, orders were issued to the sexton on Good Friday 
to throw open the doors, and ring the bell for " those of 
the Church of England." ^ Thus was shown to the 
colonists what the forfeiture of their charter really meant. 
The king, in the eye of the law, was the owner of every 
meeting-house in Massachusetts. No quitrent deeds had 
been executed of this species of property ; and if his 
Majesty was refused a spot of land whereon to build a 
church, it was lawful and right to take what was already 
his own. 

This peremptory act gained for Andros the execration 
of the colony. The manner in which it was committed 
was rather in accordance with the spirit of a state relig- 
ion than that of the Catholic Church. The solemn fast 
of Good Friday, though observed in the humblest room 
of one of the faithful in Boston, would have been more 
profitable than when celebrated in the loftiest structure 
that Puritanism had erected. The act was prompted by 
anger rather than by the spirit of religion. On the 

' Sewall in Greenwood. 2 Greenwood. 



FROM SCHISM TO SECTARIANISM. 449 

ensuing festival of Easter, the Holy Eucharist was admin- 
istered from the lowly table that Puritanism had set 
apart for that sacred rite. But " 'twas a sad sight to see 
how full the street was with people, gazing and moving 
to and fro." ^ The precedent once established, the meet- 
ing house continued to be used from time to time, when 
the necessities of the Church required. Care was taken 
not to interfere with the regular hours of Puritan wor- 
ship, and the services of the Church began only when the 
other services were ended.^ But nothing could compen- 
sate for what the proprietors felt to be an injury, and the 
administration was denounced because it stooped to re- 
venge. The solemn services of the Church were sacri- 1688. 
legiously interrupted at the very graves of its deceased 
members ; ^ and, perhaps, nothing but the soldiers, who 
were stationed as a guard, prevented, a riot at the funeral 
of Lady Andros, who was buried from the " Old South February. 
Church " by torchlight, with all the pomp of religious 
and martial ceremony.* 

But while Massachusetts was occupied by these petty Loyalty of 

1 1 1 •! 1 1 • • 1 1 ^^^ Church 

tumults, and while both parties in the colony were won- party. 
dering at the apparent indifference of the mother country, 
England was in the midst of a crisis which was to stamp 
the character of the national church for more than a 
century. A Romanist king at the head of an Anglican 
kingdom, arbitrary where liberty was fast becoming the 
popular divinity, and a hater of Protestantism long before 
the Church was to shake it from her skirts, James II., 
not in the spirit of an English Catholic,^ endeavored to 



1 Sevvall MSS. in Greenwood. our approbation. Severe, but open, 

2 Narrative, etc., in Hutchinson. in his enmities ; steady in his coun- 

3 Letter of Moody to Mather. sels, diligent in his schemes, brave 

4 Sewall MSS. in his enterprises, faithful, sincere, 

5 " In domestic life, his conduct and honorable in his dealings with all 
was irreproachable, and is entitled to men ; such was the character with 

38* 



450 PROGRESS OF THE ELDERS 

) 

purge his kingdom of that leaven which was fast cor- 
rupting the national character. Pursuing an unwise 
policy, the Churchmen, the Tories, those to whom James 
chiefly owed his crown, were supplanted hy Dissenters. 
Then was witnessed the extraordinary spectacle of Eng- 
lish universities forced into a reluctant disobedience to 
their sovereign, and, more extraordinary yet, English 
bishops plotting against the head of their Church in favor 
of a Calvinistic prince, whose concern for their safety was 
so sincere, that he threatened to leave them to the ven- 
geance of James, unless he was vested with the power 
and title of king. 

We need not read the pathetic story of the royal Lear, 
to rouse our imaginations with fictitious woes. The his- 
tory of modern England furnishes an example of daugh- 
ters as unfeeling as those whose unnatural conduct has 
been so wonderfully portrayed by the great dramatist. 
The world applauds William and Mary, because they 
were successful, but kindly forgives and forgets the man- 
ner of their success. They have had their reward. Let 
it be King James's glory, that he did " sacrifice his three 
kingdoms for a mass," and that he died in exile. 

In the mean time, the feeble branch of the Church 
transplanted by the care of Randolph to the sterile soil 
of Massachusetts, began to exhibit signs of vigor. The 
toil, which had compassed sea and land in its behalf, was 
at length rewarded with success ; but not until those 
who prepared its foundations had been sacrificed to the 



which the Duke of York mounted ousy of national honor laudable. 

Jhe throne of England. In that What, then, was wanting to make 

high station, his frugality of public him an excellent sovereign ? A due 

money was remarkable; his industry regard and affection to the religion 

was exemplary, his application to and constitution of his country." 

naval affairs successful, his encour- Hume, 
agement to trade judicious, his jeal- 



1688-89. 



FROM SCHISM TO SECTARIANISM. 451 

fury of a popular insurrection. A church was erected 
in Boston, but not for Ratchffe or Randolph or Andros. 
There it stood upon the high background of the town, a 
conspicuous object among the quaint old buildings scat- 
tered around. As if to frown upon the spirit of its 
persecutors, a single spire surmounted its plain wooden 
tower, on which, just underneath the symbolical vane 
that warns of treason and apostasy, the crown of Eng- 
land glittered in the rays of the sun. Upon that spire 
the eyes of all must rest for a moment, as they anx- 
iously glance at the beacon erected upon the hill be- 
yond ! 

The achievement of this obscure work in the metrop- 
olis of New England Puritanism, was not the least 
remarkable event of the age. It was finished, just as 
the first blow was struck . in England, at the union 
between Church and State. The principle of divine 
right, which had hovered for centuries over the throne 
like its guardian angel, and which was the safeguard 
provided by the Church for the State, had taken its 
flight ; but it rested for a moment, before disappearing 
forever, upon the altar of King's Chapel, in Boston. 
On the same record that transmits to their posterity the 1689 
names of " the honest and well-disposed persons " who 
contributed " towards erecting a church for God's wor- 
ship," is the following emphatic declaration : " Note, that 
on the 18th of April preceding began a most impious 
and detestable rebellion against the King's Majesty's 
government ; the governor and all just men to the same 
were brought into restraint." The unknown hand that 
traced these loyal lines, while Andros, Randolph, and 
Bullivant were imprisoned in the Castle, and months 
after their sovereign had become a fugitive from the land 
of his fathers, might well have written Laus Deo. There 



July. 



452 PROGRESS OF THE ELDERS, ETC. 

was reason for such praise ; not merely because of the 
humble structure which graced the quaint town of Bos- 
ton, but because, surrounded by those stern old Puritans, 
hearts were still beating that cherished the honor of the 
Church and crown. 



CHAPTER VI. 

SOME GENERAL REFLECTIONS ON THE ENGLISH 
COLONIAL POLICY, AND ON THE CHARACTER OF 
PURITANISM. 



Erroneous Spirit of popular Historians — Rise of the English Colonies — 
Three Classes of Colonies — Conflict of Interests between the Crown 
and the Charter Colonies — Commercial Policy of Charles I. — The 
Ordinance of 165 1 — Cromwell's Policy — The Navigation Laws of 
Charles II. — Their Fourfold Object — How viewed by the Colonies — 
Character of the restrictive System — Contrast between Virginia and 
Massachusetts — How accounted for — Character of Puritanism — 
Protestantism, the Triumph of Reason over Faith — Puritanism, the 
Protestantism of England — Puritanism eminently superstitious — 
Unfriendly to Literature — Hostile to Civil and Religious Liberty — 
Advocates the indiscriminate Use of the Bible — Which causes its 
Decline. 



We cannot view, without amazement, the fierceness 
with which certain writers have assailed the poHcy adopted 
by England towards her colonies, stigmatizing it as in Erroneous 
the highest degree tyrannical and uniust. We do not popular 

~ ~ •' '^ histonans. 

allude to that inferior order of literature, which swarms 
in the schoolhouses of New England. Historians of a 
high character and of solemn pretence have sought to 
win the applause of the multitude, by sacrificing the 
nobler aim of teaching by examples. They regard the 
■prejudices of their countrymen rather than the praises of 
mankind. Such writers boldly assume the position, that 
the great nation from which we sprung kept her colonies 
for the mere purpose of oppressing them ; and that, 



4f54f GENERAL REFLECTIONS 

CHAP, whether under a king or parliament, the misery rather 
> — r — • than the happiness of her offspring was the aim of the 
parent state. ^ Candid writers, however patriotic, would 
assume a more elevated position. They would attribute 
the faults of the mother country not to unnatural tyr- 
anny, but rather to mistaken notions of polity. If they 
could not approve of her measures, they would calmly 
ascribe her errors to inexperience, and not to design. 
Mad kings alone make merry over the ruin of their 
subjects. 
Rise of the In the beginninfi;' of the seventeenth century, Ens^land 

English 1 • 1 • oi 1 "" 

colonies, was without colouial possessions. She had but shortly 
before recovered from those great moral conflicts which 
had interrupted her maritime enterprises, and during 
which other nations, with the assistance of Rome, had 
been dividing the world. In the latter part of the happy 
reign of Elizabeth, she resumed the toils so auspiciously 
commenced by Cabot, anxious to have a share in the 
golden harvests of the West, if haply there yet remained 
one spot unclaimed by Europe, or unappropriated by the 
Pope. She found the fairest islands, the most fertile 
countries, the richest mines, and the best fisheries, already 
seized by her more fortunate neighbors. In the vast 
extent of the eastern coast of America, from Greenland 
to the great Southern Cape, there only remained for her 
share of the New World the alluvial plains of Virginia 
and the rocky promontories of New England.^ These 

1 A few examples may not be fathers, but it long ceased to wear 

amiss. " England thrust them out, towards them a benign or paternal 

and only owned them to oppress countenance." Grahame. 
them." Bancroft. " The king, ~ Even here England hardly had 

Jiowever, seemed determined to fol- a fair chance. In 1603, Henry IV. 

low them into the wilderness, and of France, granted to Sieur dc 

deprive them of those privileges, for Monts all the country from the for- 

the enjoyment of which they had tieth to the forty-sixth degree of lati- 

made such sacrifices." Pitkin. " Be- tude, by the name of Cadie, or Aca- 

hind them was the land of their die, which De Monts ranged and 



ON THE ENGLISH COLONIAL POLICY. 455 

territories were soon grasped. She planted the Church chap. 
in the former, and the spirit of her people produced a ^-^-y — ' 
new creation in the latter. And, at the close of the 
eighteenth century, the genius and enterprise of the Eng- 
lish character had gained for the mother country a more 
formidable colonial power than had yet graced the crown 
of a modern prince. 

Holding in her possession Virginia and New England, classes of 
by right of discovery,^ three classes of colonies grew 
up under the royal patronage ; charter, proprietary, and 
royal. The two latter were expressly established with 
certain powers of civil government, so understood by the 
king, and so guaranteed by the law. They were, the 
one mediately and the other immediately, under the direct 
supervision of the crown ; and could at any moment, on 
proper occasion, be resumed into the royal hands.^ But 
with the former the case was different. The charters, 
originally granted for mere purposes of incorporation, 
and containing certain powers suitable for great mercan- 
tile companies, were perverted to protect civil and relig- 
ious systems unknown to the English laws, and not in 
the legal power of the king to bestow.^ Thus, we have 
seen that the history of the first charter of Massachu- 
setts presents scarcely a moment of repose, from the 
landing of Winthrop's company to the destruction of 
the English monarchy, and from the death of Cromwell 
to the English Revolution. The usurpations of the cor- 
poration led to a continual contest between the king and 
the patentees, interrupted, on the part of the former, only 

took possession of. See Hutchinson, 3 The charter colonies were con- 

vol. i. p. lo. If the French had fined to New England. Of the 

made good their title, they would other English colonies in America, 

have absorbed all the territory from Maryland, the Carolinas, New Jer- 

Pennsylvania upwards. sey, and Pennsylvania were proprie- 

1 Hakluyt. Hutchinson. tary. Virginia, and afterwards New 

2 Bl. Com. Introd. § 4. Pitkin. York, were royal. 



4<56 GENERAL REFLECTIONS 

by domestic troubles and the frequent tender of the oHve- 
branch. The colony, heedless of its false position, clung 
to an ideal charter, and, consequently, sacrificed the actual 
one. Indeed, had the terms of this grant been properly 
observed, the corporation might successfully have resisted 
any attempts at aggression on the part of the sovereign ; 
while perpetual violations of its letter and spirit made it 
a void parchment, as worthless, in any legal sense, as a 
cancelled deed or a forged note. And the falsity of the 
charge of tyranny, sometimes urged against the Stuarts 
for endeavoring to resolve an illegal combination into its 
primary elements, will not fail to appear to the candid 
observer, when he calls to mind how this royal grant, 
expressed on perishable substance with a " little black 
liquid," was respected by the crown, even after the muni- 
ments it bestowed were justly forfeited. Some admira- 
tion for the spirit of English liberty will be excited by 
the thought, that a powerful monarch dared not make 
any offensive movement against his helpless colony, 
until he had received permission from the law ; and that 
a king of England appealed to a court of justice where 
a Bourbon would have resorted to the cannon and the 
bayonet. 
Conflict of It was in the charter colonies that those great princi- 
between P^^^s wcre developed, which have since shaken the dynas- 
a^dTur ties of the Old World. Here was the field where an 
coionfcs. anomalous controversy was excited betvi^een the sovereign 
power and the people ; not the controversy of brute 
force, but that of distinct interests, growing out of the 
law. On the one hand was the king, the fountain of all 
privilege, the keeper of all prerogative, and the embodied 
majesty of all law, justice, and equity ; on the other was 
u corporation, which claimed its very being from these 
attributes of the sovereign, and whose only shield against 



ON THE ENGLISH COLONIAL POLICY. 457 

his aggressions was a thin shred of parchment. It was chap. 
for the interest of the former to make the corporation ■ — y— ^ 
subservient to his power and grandeur ; it was for the 
interest of the latter to seek its own prosperity, irrespec- 
tive of the power to which it owed its existence — to be 
a sun in the heavens, rather than a satelHte. This clash- 
ing of interests was the commencement of a struggle 
which ended in revolution. 

And where was the primum mohile of these conflict- 
ing interests % On the one side, England beheld other 
kingdoms whose colonies increased their wealth and ex- 
tended their commerce. She saw no division of interests 
between Spain and the Mexicos, France and the Canadas, 
Portugal and the Brazils, or between Rome and them 
all. The grandeur of the nation and the glory of the 
Church was sought equally in the Old World and the 
New. The harmony was complete. Even the petty 
Republic of Holland rendered herself formidable, by 
means of her remote colonies. And England desired 
the same harmonious relations with her own foreign 
settlements. Nor was it an unreasonable desire, when 
confined to the royal and proprietary plantations. In the 
former, the Church was coeval with the first disembarka- 
tion ; and principles of loyalty and veneration grew up 
with the first crops which gladdened the hearts of the 
planters. In the proprietary colonies, the same result 
was brought about in a different manner. Whether 
founded by Romanists, Quakers, or Latitudinarians, the 
cro^vn was the necessary balancing power between the 
proprietors and the people ; being needful, on the one 
hand, to check the arbitrariness of government ; and 
equally important, on the other, to arrest the progress of 
faction.^ 

1 Accordingly, we find that the history of the proprietary colonies is 
39 



4<5S GENERAL REFLECTIONS 

CHAP. Xhe charter colony stood alone. It could hope nothing 
" — ■' — ' from the king beyond what it already possessed, and 
more especially since this was the ground of abuse. 
Diversity of religion, of laws, and of customs, separated 
it from the mother country, which could only be useful 
as a protector in seasons of danger. Even this slender 
tie was almost totally dissolved between Massachusetts 
and England, during the abeyance of the monarchy ; and 
the colony, confident in its own strength and wisdom, 
boldly took the helm into its own hands. Such was the 
relation in which the charter colonies stood towards the 
parent state, and such the contrast they presented to the 
more quiet plantations of the South. But the diversity 
of interests afforded no plea for a diversity of policy 
which was not founded in right. England recognized 
but one people in America, and they were Englishmen 
and English subjects. To preserve colonial dependence, 
to make the colonies powerful accessions to the wealth, 
the dignity, and the grandeur of the nation, and, by this 
means, to add to the glory of the Church, and the 
expansion of true Christianity ; such were the noble 
objects sought by the crown in founding its Western 
Empire. 
commer- It has been shown, in another place,^ that the charter 
of^cEaries of Massachusetts Bay incorporated a great commercial 
company, and not a band of Puritan devotees. To this 
end. King Charles the First bestowed upon the corpo- 
rators certain advantages of trade ; and reserved to the 
crown, in lieu of its strict rights, one fifth part of "all 
ore of gold and silver," which might thereafter be discov- 



biit little more than a relation of the power of the crown; and, in the 

perpetual quarrels between the people end, most of them became royal gov. 

and the proprietors, each of whom ernments. See Pitkin, vol. i. p. 60. 
sought refuge against the other in l Jnre, p. 26. 



ON THE ENGLISH COLONIAL POLICY. 459 

ered in the plantation. To stimulate the efforts of the chap. 

. . .VI. 

company, its goods and merchandise were, for certam ^— v-^ 
periods, exempt from all taxes, customs, and duties what- 
soever.^ When the transfer of the charter was made, 
however, the company so changed its character and 
objects, that the original designs of the patentees were 
merged in the religious enthusiasm which had seized 
their successors. The corporation then assumed the dig- 
nity of a state, and turned over, with disdain, the pur- 
suits of commerce to individual enterprise. The king 
found, that so far from having increased the prosperity 
of the nation, by establishing a commercial corporation 
which would minister to its wants and reflect glory upon 
the Church, he had unwittingly opened a door for the 
increase of dissent. To rectify the abuse of his grant, 
and to restore its legitimate purpose, Charles now directed 
his aim. He was the more resolved in this course, on 
reflecting that the abandonment of commercial enterprise 
by the company was not only an implied breach of the 
charter, which bestowed unusual privileges for the benefit 
of the national commerce, but that it might be the occa- 
sion of great advantage to the Dutch, who, at this early 
period of the English colonies, enjoyed much of their 
carrying trade. 

The king was foiled in his efforts, and the cry ofiheordi- 
tyranny was echoed back by New England, to swell the i65i. 
clamor of the miserable rabble which was assaulting the 
throne. The colony quietly grew in strength, while the 
sovereign power remained vigorous ; and now that the 
royal cause yielded to the external pressure, Massachu- 
setts began to develop considerable trade, which was 
made subservient to her own interests.^ The celebrated 

1 Ante, p. 29. 2 It is singular that the laws reg- 



460 GENERAL REFLECTIONS 

ordinance of the Long Parliament first taught the colony 
that her commercial enterprise was subject to a higher 
165L power than her own. This ordinance, generally sup- 
posed to have been the foundation of the English Colo- 
nial System,^ was borrowed from the late king's Orders 
in Council, respecting the trade of Virginia with the 
Dutch. Of this commercial power, Charles was justly 
jealous. The duties laid upon tobacco, caused the Vir- 
ginia Company to send that staple directly to Holland; 
and the orders of the king in council, that no tobacco, 
or other production of the plantation, should be exported 
to foreign countries, until they had been first landed in 
England and had paid the legal customs, were for some 
time disregarded.^ 

This illegal trade was in operation so early as 1619; 
and King James was alarmed to see the commerce of an 
article, the daily demand for which was rapidly increas- 
ing, turned into a channel that tended to deprive the 
government of the duties, and to diminish the revenue. 
During the year 1621, no Virginia tobacco was imported 
into England, to the injury of the national trade ; and, in 
October, an order was issued that no tobacco, or other 
production of the colonies, should be carried into foreign 
parts, until they were first landed in England, and the 

ulating trade and commerce, and cultivation in Virginia began, about 

their various branches, begun to be the year 1616, to be the favorite 

passed after the royal cause began pursuit of the Virginia planters. As 

to fail. Such were the acts encour- the most celebrated of the navigation 

aging ship-building, against forger- laws, a much earlier origin may be 

ies, respecting fisheries, etc., etc. ascribed to the spirit which led to its 

Until this time, the colony had adoption. By stat. 5 Rich. II., in 

enough to do in defending the trans- order to augment the English ma- 

fer of the charter. rine, it was ordained that none of 

■> 1 Scobell. Blacks. Comment. the king's liege people should ship 

2 Tobacco was first introduced any merchandise out of or into the 

into England about the year 1586. realm, but only in ships of the king's 

In thirty years, the annual consump- liegance, on pain of forfeiture. 5 

tion of this article averaged 142,085 Rich. II., c. 3. 
pounds weight. Stith. Robert. Its 



ON THE ENGLISH COLONIAL POLICY. 461 

custom paid. These proclamations continued to be re- chap. 
newed and violated from time to time, but rarely without '-^-v->i^ 
being- accompanied by an order forbidding, under some 
new penalty or with more stringent language, the cultiva- 
tion of tobacco anywhere but in the colonies.^ Yet these 
early restraints upon the trade of Virginia were not unac- 
companied by special benefits ; and while the crown 
claimed those rights, which formed the consideration of 
her grants to the colony, orders were at the same time 
repeatedly issued, forbidding the cultivation of the colo- 
nial staple within the limits of the three kingdoms.^ The 
charter of 1609 granted an immunity from customs and 
subsidies for twenty-one years ; but tobacco was a new 
article, not contemplated by the grant, and the Virginia 
Company yielded the point, by assenting to an annual 
duty, in consideration of a royal proclamation forbidding 
the cultivation of tobacco at home.^ 

It appears, from the royal proclamations of James and 
Charles,* concerning tobacco, that both these kings only 
consented to " tolerate the use of " the Virginia tobacco 
in their dominions until they were able to grow more 
solid commodities in the colonies. It cannot be proved, 
nor is it probable, as has been alleged,^ that these princes 



• Chalmers's Annals, pp. 52, 53. the market, in which they partially 

2 Hazard. Scobell's Acts. Chal- succeeded. In consideration of this 
mers's Annals. Art. xix. Stith's loss to the revenue, moderate duties 
Appendix. were imposed by parliament upon 

3 Stith. There is another view of Virginia tobacco. Chalmers's An- 
this case. Spanish tobacco was of nals, p. 51. But there were perpetual 
finer quality, and more abundant discords and clamors among them- 
than that raised in Virginia, and selves until the dissolution of the 
paid reasonable duties to the crown, company, and no measures proposed 
when imported into England. But by themselves, or by the king, were 
if the latter paid no duties, it would adopted, or, if adopted, were of long 
undersell the former and drive it continuance. See Stith, b. v. 
from the market. Such a construe- 4 Hazard, vol. i. pp. 93, 193, 202, 
tion of the rights of the company 224. 

was absurd, and they made every 5 Bancroft, 
exertion to obtain a monopoly of 
39* 



462 GENERAL REFLECTIONS 

were sacrificing the welfare of the colonies to their own 
cupidity. On the contrary, their restrictions arose from 
a paternal, if mistaken interest in the morals, of their 
1634. people. Thus, in a commission issued by King Charles, 
he says, that, having " observed the great necessities and 
miseries " the planters have endured, by " the irregular 
planting and ordering of tobacco, and the unconscionable 
practices put upon them in the sale thereof," so " that 
they have been obliged to beg their bread from door to 
door in extreme necessity," and that " they are still likely 
to suffer under the burden of many oppressions, occa- 
sioned by the secret and indirect trade of particular mer- 
chants and shopkeepers, who make a prey of them and 
their labors," so that they " are forced to send their 
tobacco for foreign ports without payment of the ordi- 
nary duties," he claims the future preemption of the 
tobacco, " at such rates and prices as shall be found fit, 
having respect to the support of the colonies," wherein 
" our aim is not for our own private profit, but for the 
support of our said colonies, and the preservation of our 
subjects who reside there." ^ 

The truth, now, however, began to reveal itself in a 
novel form, that self-interest is the predominant pas- 
sion of every class of men, and that all revenue laws, 
that were supposed to restrict private gain, would be 
ingeniously evaded or openly disregarded. The charge 
of cupidity, which had been so universally preferred 
against the ecclesiastics for their absorption of the lands 
of the kingdom, might well have been retorted upon 
that new order of men, who, unlike the former, loved 
gain for itself, and not for the exercise of charities. The 
moral lesson involved in the evasion of the Orders in 

1 Hazard, vol. i. p. 373. 



ON THE ENGLISH COLONIAL POLICY. 4f6S 

Council was not adequately understood. The immunities chap. 
of the Virginia Company had heen bestowed by the ^^-^ — ' 
king, with the implied understanding that " the colonists 
would apply themselves to such courses as would in- 
corporate their plantation irlto his commonwealth ; " and 
the attention of the government was entirely directed 
in this channel, since " for that company to suffer a 
foreign trade was as inconsistent with the view in the 
planting of Virginia, as with just policy or the honor of 
the state." ^ 

This clashing of interests between the crown and the 
company occasioned considerable difficulty, which the 
downfall of the throne did not, by any means, tend to 
allay. One of the last of the royal instructions to Sir 
William Berkeley was, to suffer no ships laden with 
tobacco or other merchandise to depart from the planta- 
tion, until bond with surety had been given, to secure the 
observance of the laws. The reason assigned for this 
order was, that " the king, after so great an expense 
upon that plantation, and transporting thither so many of 
his subjects, might not be defrauded of what is justly 
due for customs on the goods." ^ Such were the grounds 
on which Charles based his policy. But, with parlia- 
ment, the case was different. Incensed at the loyalty of 
Virginia and the Sugar Islands, whose inhabitants were 
pronounced " notorious robbers and traitors," as well as 
at the gainful trade of the Dutch, they framed the rudi- i650. 
ments of the Navigation Act, which was intended to 
mortify the one and clip the wings of the other.^ This 
act prohibited all ships of foreign nations from trading 
with any English plantations, without license from the 



1 Chalmers's Annals, p. 53. 3 Mod. Un. Hist. Bl. Com. 

2 Ibid. p. 120. 



464 GENERAL REFLECTIONS 

CHAP, council of stat^. And in the following year, by the 
-^-w influence of Cromwell, the prohibition was further ex- 
^ tended, so as to restrict trade with all the plantations to 
EngUsh-built ships belonging to English subjects, or to 
the ships of the nation of which the merchandise im- 
ported was the g^enuine growth or manufacture.^ 
OromweTTs The New Eng^land Colonies found themselves included 

poBcy. . . . ^ . 

in diis sweeping ordinance. The ten years preceding 
had been the golden period of Puritanism, during which 
it had formed a commonwealth, produced a system of 
laws, and estabUshed a (^w<j-5f* independence. Massachu- 
setts had become a thrifty state. The timber wharves 
of her capital were thronged with vessels from France, 
Spain. Portugal, and Holland." Ships, ranging from 
one to four hundred tons, were launched from her ship- 
yards, and carried the knowledofe of the colony into the 
ports of the Old World.^^ Wholly unprepared to yield 
any assent to the navigation laws, she violated them with 
perfect impunity by the free consent of Cromwell.* But 
the wily usurper was fully aware of the great advantage 
of prosperous and obedient colonies to the mother coun- 
try, and he " had it much at heart to draw ofl the hardy 
Puritans from their cold and sterile country, to peo]^ 
the fertile island he had lately conquered from Spain. 
In this he exhibited his usual sagacitv. Temperate 
dmies produce moral fruits, that cannot mature in the 
shade of colonial dependence, — energy, enterprise, am- 
bition, and the K^ld spirit of Hbertv. The blazing sun 
of the equator, on the contrary, while it r^idly ripens 



I ScobdL HaKtinsoa. ** Thoae wlio fired in the next age 

3 Johnson. '* This town is the speak oi das as the OMrem ^euu, in 

Toy mart of die land : French. Por- which rdigioD and virtue flomished/* 

tugals, and Dutch come hither fcr Hutchinson. 

trxfic" Johnson, b. i, c at. * Hutcfaiann. 
' New England's First Fruits. 



ON THE ENGLISH COLONIAL POLICY. 465 

the richest productions of Nature, is but httle calculated chap. 
to rouse the restless passions of the mind. The planter " — r-^ 
of the tropics, himself a petty despot, regards his fields as 
the only source of his wealth. He has little commerce, 
and less ship-building. Aristocratic in his tastes, and 
luxurious in his habits, he has no inclination to involve 
himself in Utopian schemes, which have for their end 
the progress of humanity. He dreams away his life in 
social enjoyments, loyal to his king, who protects him and 
his property ; and always has the happiness to find him- 
self half a century behind the rest of mankind. Was 
Cromwell un^\^se when he proposed to people Jamaica 
with the Puritans of Massachusetts ? 

The intelligent Puritan easily foiled the usurper, and The navi- 
contioued quietly, but steadily, to increase in wealth, and of Charles 
to violate the laws in the home of his choice. On the 
restoration of Charles the Second, he suffered, conse- 
quently, the greater shock. The celebrated Navigation 
Acts of this reign erected a more shapely structure than 
had yet distinguished this department of the English gov- 
ernment. The materials were furnished by the half-exe- 
cuted conceptions of Charles the First and the Ordinance 
of the Long Parliament ; the design was borrowed from 
the colonial policy of foreign nations. It was ordered, 
under penalty of forfeiture, that no commodities should 166O. 
be imported into the English plantations, or exported 
thence, but in English-built vessels, three fourths of whose 
crews were English subjects. And it was further ordered, 
under the same penalty, that none but natural or natural- 
ized subjects of the crown should exercise the occupation 
of merchant or factor in any of the colonies. Certain 
enumerated commodities, such as sugar, tobacco, cotton, 
wool, indigo, ginger, fustic and other dyeing woods, to 
which were afterwards added such further staples as 



466 GENERAL REFLECTIONS 

became known in European markets, were forbidden to 
be shipped to any countries other than England, Ireland, 
Wales, or some one of the plantations themselves. These 
were the three leading features of this act, the enforce- 
ment of which was provided for by requiring bonds with 
surety, at the several ports of lading.^ But the provis- 
ions of this act, however harsh they may seem, were not 
in any sense one sided. For, to prevent all competition 
with the plantations, the most prominent of their staples 
was prohibited culture in Great Britain and Ireland.^ 
A few years later, when it was found that this act was 
1663. evaded, a second act passed the English parliament, 
declaring that the English plantations were peopled by 
English subjects, and that, for maintaining a greater cor- 
respondence and kindness between them and the mother 
country, for preserving the dependence of one upon the 
other, for rendering the former more beneficial to the latter, 
by the further employment and increase of English ship- 
ping and seamen, by making the mother country a mar- 
ket for colonial productions, and by furnishing a mart for 
her woollens and other manufactures, according to " the 
usage of other nations," no commodity, of the growth or 
manufacture of Europe should be imported into any of 
the plantations, unless it were first shipped in England, 
Wales, or the town of Berwick, in English bottoms, 
whose crews were three fourths English, and carried 
directly to the port of unlading. Certain articles, how- 
ever, which were of the greatest importance to the col- 
onies, such as salt for the fisheries of New England, 



1 12 Charles II. c. i8. or Ireland, on penalty of forty shil- 

- 12 Charles II. c. 34. "To de- lings for every rod or pole of land so 

fend, maintain, and protect the colo- planted. It seems from this statute 

nies, and to give them all possible that tobacco was at this time cul- 

encouragcment,"tobaccoes were pro- tivated in England, and the statute 

hibitcd to be cultivated in England mentions it as not luholesome. 



severe.^ 



vr. 



• ON THE ENGLISH COLONIAL POLICY. 467 

wines from the Azores and Madeira, and provisions, chaf 
servants, and horses from Scotland, were expressly ex- 
cepted from the operation of this statute. At the same 
time, the penalties for planting tobacco in England, to 
" the discouragement of the colonies," were made very 



And here the laws for the regulation of trade would 
have finished their work, had the colonists been content 
with moderate profits, in hope of better times. There 
still remained unobstructed the trade between the planta- 
tions themselves; and the sugar and tobacco of the South 
could be purchased at far cheaper rates by the colonists 
of Massachusetts than by the people of England.^ Not 
a custom-house obstructed the channels of trade, from 
Maine to the Carolinas. But this privilege was made 
the ground of abuse. " Contrary to the express letter 
of the aforesaid laws," ^ the colonists disposed of their 
productions " to the shipping of other nations," and 
thereby defrauded the customs, and injured the naviga- 
tion of the kingdom. This violation of the laws caused 
much indignation ; for the commercial rivals of England 
were thus illegally favored by the colonies, while, at the 
same time, the mother country was maintaining a greater 
marine to protect them from foreign aggression. Thus, 
the colonies, for the gratification of their own cupidity, 
were playing into the hands of their enemies ; and their 
commodities could be obtained cheaper in Holland or 
France than in the markets of England. To close the 
avenue to such monstrous results, a third act was passed 2672. 
by parliament,'* which required the same duties to be paid 

1 15 Charles II. c. 7. ^ This was when parliament was 

~ This was felt somewhat as a called together by Charles II. to 

grievance by the inhabitants of Eng- procure their assistance in the war 

land, who had to pay heavy customs against Holland. Chalmers's An- 

for all colonial productions. nals, p. 317. 

3 Stat. 25 Charles II. c. 7. 



468 



GENERAL REFLECTIONS 



Fourfold 
object of 
the naviga- 
tion laws. 



on importations into one colony from another, as were 
levied on similar importations from the colonies into the 
mother country. 

These were the celebrated Navigation Laws, which 
gained for England the reputation of tyranny, and for 
the New England Colonies that of disloyalty. Which 
of these imputations is most just, it may be well to 
inquire. The advantages proposed by parliament in these 
enactments were fourfold : namely, the encouragement of 
English ship-building, the growth of English seamen, 
the prosperity of English commerce, and the advance- 
ment of English manufactures. To all these objects, it 
was expected that the colonies would contribute ; and 
as this expectation was less than that formed by other 
nations, in regard to their colonies, it was not considered 
unreasonable.^ But the pioneers of the wilderness beheld 
with dismay a system which they did not comprehend. 
To curtail their profits was perilous, to restrict their trade, 



rum. 



How re- 
ceived by 
the colo- 
nies. 



1672. 
September. 



The different manner in which these laws were received 
in Virginia and Massachusetts illustrates very curiously 
the prevailing spirit in the leading colonies of England. 
The government of Virginia endeavored to enforce the 
laws, while it petitioned for their repeal. The officers 
appointed by the commissioners of customs, to collect 
the various duties, were there received with " the atten- 



1 The colonial policy of England, 
" on the whole, was much less op- 
pressive and illiberal than that which 
any other nation of Europe had ever 
been known to pursue. While the 
foreign trade of the colonies was 
restrained for the supposed advan- 
tage of England, they partook of 
her prosperity ; and the restrictions 
imposed on them were much less 
rigorous and injurious than those 



which the colonies of France, Spain, 
Portugal, and Denmark endured 
from their respective parent states." 
Grahame. It seems that a clandes- 
tine traffic was carried on with a set- 
tlement of the Dutch on Hudson's 
River, by the Virginians ; and no 
doubt many of their productions 
found their way further north, and 
were shipped from the port of Bos- 
ton. 



*0N THE ENGLISH COLONIAL POLICY. 469 

tion due to persons invested with legal powers from royal chap. 
authority ; " and acts were passed by the assembly to ^ — r — ' 
aid them in the discharge of their unpleasant duties. 
The example thus set by Virginia was followed by Mary- 
land ; and the offices of governor and collector were sus- 
tained by the same individual,^ not only without causing a 
murmur, but with approbation.^ If it were for his Maj- 
esty's service, or the good of the subject, we would not 
repine, said Berkeley ; but, on my soul, it is the contrary 
for both.^ Royal and democratic parties were indeed 
formed among the planters ; the former of which, en- 
couraged by the Church, and unwilling to raise the 
standard of rebellion because of " the low price of to- 
bacco," rallied around their loyal governor, in hopes of 
better times ; while the latter, composed of a different 
class, secretly violated the laws, and openly embarrassed 
their execution.^ But only one sentiment prevailed in 
Massachusetts. That colony did not give herself the 
trouble either to petition or to obey. Indeed, so to- 
tally were the Navigation Laws disregarded by the Pur- 
itans, that the tax-paying interests of England loudly 

1 George Calvert. chafed more under Cromwell than 

~ Chalmers's Annals, pp. 320, under the Stuarts; and, indeed, was 

370. indebted to him for the ordinance of 

3 Ibid. pp. 328, 349. 1651. The Dutch endeavored, in 

4 Birkenhead's conspiracy to seize 1660, to establish a treaty of peace 
the government was made plausible and commerce with Virginia, in 
by the grievances under which the which they were partially successful, 
colony was said to labor; but, so far But Berkeley would not wholly com- 
from countenancing this wretched mit himself. He declared himself 
rebellion, the assembly ordered the only a servant of the assembly, which. 
13th of September to be kept holy, however, did not arrogate to itself 
as the day on which it was discon- any power further than the misera- 
certed. Ancient Laws, p. 63. ble distractions of England forced 
" The recent experience of the them to. " For when God shall be 
lenient and liberal policy of Crom- pleased, in his mercy, to dissipate 
well rendered the pressure of the the unnatural divisions of their na- 
burden more severe, and the inflic- tive country, they will immediately 
tion of it more exasperating." Gra- return to their own professed obe- 
hame. This unblushing statement dience." Berkeley's Letter to Stuy- 
is too ludicrous to mislead. Virginia vesant. Smith's New York, p. lo. 

40 



470 



GENERAL REFLECTIONS 



1675. 



Cliaracter 
of the re- 
strictive 
system. 



complained, while the Lords' Committee for the Colonies 
inquired whether the Commissioners of the Customs con- 
sidered the acts of trade as extending to New England.^ 
Such a wanton violation of the laws staggered the credu- 
lity of the committee. Had Massachusetts been selected, 
out of all the English Colonies, to suffer a burden unen- 
dured by the others, she might, perhaps, with some show 
of justice, have contemptuously declined all notice of the 
restrictions. But for twenty years the Puritan Colony 
had been favored beyond law and precedent, and now she 
was but required to share a burden common to all the 
colonies of England, and lighter by far than that endured 
by the colonies of other nations. There was no favor- 
itism exhibited in the colonial scheme, unless towards 
Massachusetts. She, the most disloyal of all the colo- 
nies, was placed on the same footing with the most loyal. 
The prosperity of Virginia, or of the Carolinas, or of 
the Sugar Islands, or of the Bermudas, was not more 
dear to England than that of the enterprising merchants 
of Massachusetts Bay. Their tobacco and sugar, it was 
expected, would contribute to the national wealth, as well 
as the naval stores and ship timber of the pine forests of 
the North. All the colonies were made markets for the 
English manufactures, and the difference of climate alone 
settled the destination of the woollens and linens of the 
mother country.^ 

And now what can be urged in favor of the system, 
stigmatized by Adam Smith as " mean and malignant," 



1 Chalmers's Annals, pp. 262, in Greenwood's Hist, of King's 
400. Chapel, p. 13, n. It was not until 

2 No collector was sent to Mas- October, 1677, that the general 
sachusetts for many years ; and when court ordered the laws of trade and 
Randolph at last arrived, to execute navigation to be observed in Massa- 
the duties of that office, he was chusctts. Colony Laws, 
threatened with death. MSS. cited 



|l 



ON THE ENGLISH COLONIAL POLICY. 471 

and which certain historians have pronounced tyrannical chap. 
and unjust? Where prejudice has assumed the province — v — 
of reason, persuasion and argument are equally futile. 
Fiction, resolutely persisted in and unwaveringly urged, 
will gradually assume the dignity of truth ; and that will 
be asserted as a grave reality which former generations 
would have deemed unworthy of refutation.^ It is now 
taken for granted, that because the restrictive system 
operated to the disadvantage of the colonies, it was neces- 
sarily unjust and tyrannical ; that the colonies had rights 
equally broad with those of the mother country ; and 
that any infringement of the asfeerted claims justified an 
open violation of the law. But even where such bold 
and prejudiced assertions are made, to the detriment of 
truth and the peril of history, it may be insisted, in reply, 
that as the sin of the mother country was inexperience, 
so the privilege of the colonies did not transcend the 
limits of remonstrance. Political science was yet in its 
infancy, and no nation had advanced further than this, 
that her colonies, which had been peopled by her sub- 
jects and protected by her arms, owed her a permanent 
debt of gratitude, both for their being and preservation. 
However erroneous was the principle of the parental 
relation, England is at least entitled to respect for 
claiming only a parent's rights, while other kingdoms 
abused a parent's authority. Perhaps the day is not far 
distant, when history and philosophy will combine to 
denounce as tyrannical the rule of the family circle, and 
nations will hold jubilees over the emancipation of women 
and children. 

Whatever force there may be in arguments of this 
nature, they would have come with peculiarly bad grace 

1 Suppose the claims of Massa- had been urged to Charles I. in 
chusetts, under her charter in 1680, 163 1 ! 



4<7!2 GENERAL REFLECTIONS 

from the Puritans of Massachusetts. An impassable 
barrier separated them from other English colonists. 
Originally a mercantile company, they resolved them- 
selves into a commonwealth, transferred their charter, 
and perverted their franchise. On what plea could they 
take advantage of their own wrong ? Could they thrust 
their charter into the houses of parliament, and then say, 
we have no voice in your deliberations, and, therefore, 
are not bound by your laws ] Were not all corporations 
bound by the laws of the realm ? Or had they rights 
and privileges which an omnipotent parliament could not 
reach ^ ^ On what principle could " The Company of 
Massachusetts Bay " demand a special representation in 
parliament, any more than the ancient companies of 
" The Mercers," or " The Weavers," or " The Gold- 
smiths," or " The Vintners " ? Indeed, had they not 
voluntarily confessed, on other occasions, that they were 
specially represented in parliament through the manor of 
East Greenwich,^ it would be difficult to repress a smile 
at claims now put forth in their behalf, so utterly incon- 
sistent not only with law and justice, but also with their 
own admissions. 

But the restrictive system stands on more elevated 
ground. As a question of right, there is much to be 
said in its favor. It was then believed, and has since 
been demonstrated, that such a system may enure to the 
benefit of the nation, even though it prove injurious to 
the rapid advance of the colony.^ It was held to be 
self-evident, that as the colonies were established for the 
.extension of the national commerce, and not for the pro- 

1 Parliament, says Blackstone, 2 See ante, t^. 271. 

can do every thing which is not 3 See Ricardo's Examination of 

naturally impossible. This is the Adam Smith's Argument. Polit. 

advancement of a principle, not Econ. p. 405, 3d edit, 
merely the statement of a fact. 



ON THE ENGLISH COLONIAL POLICY. 47^ 

motion of rivalry and competition, there was nothing chap. 
arbitrary in expecting- a fulfihnent of the contract, ^-^r-^ 
Above all, it was found that the increase of the colonies 
in all parts of the world rendered larger armies and 
navies necessary for their defence, the burden of whose 
support fell chiefly, if not wholly, upon the mother coun- 
try. The customs were a branch of revenue as old as 
Edward the First ; and, as commerce extended, it was 
just it should pay for its own protection. And, further, 
it was thought that, by the operation of a system which 
should lead the parent state to look to her colonies for 
wealth, and the colonies to rely upon the parent state 
for their nourishment and supplies, feelings of kindness 
would be promoted on the one side, and of loyalty on the 
other.^ 

It must be admitted, that if the colonies were estab- 
lished for the extension of commerce, all who settled in 
them had notice of the fact, and, therefore, had no just 
cause for complaint. If the adequate protection of this 
commerce ajid of the colonies rendered a larger navy 
necessary, it was certainly fitting that the beneficiaries 
should encourage national ship-building.^ If the manning 
of the armed marine required a great increase of seamen, 

1 Such is the ground taken by assumption, that colonial restrictions 
Montesquieu, in his Esprit des Lois, are injurious to the interests of the 
b. xxi. c. 17. And Grahame ad- mother country. With this position 
mits its propriety, as regards Vir- granted, he may well triumphantly 
ginia, p. 113, n. ; but with Massa- ask, why spend so many millions to 
chusetts, he and Bancroft think the keep what are so worthless ? 

case was different. But, on their 3 The wars with the Dutch ren- 
own ground, as a perpetual refer- dered increased attention to the 
ence is made in the Massachusetts navy necessary. At Cromwell's 
charter to other corporations of the death, the English navy numbered 
kingdom, in order to point out its one hundred and fifty-tour sail, of 
true intent and meaning, it is impos- which one third were of the hne. 
sible to perceive that a band of Puri- And although carr) ing about six 
tans had any special rights unknown thousand guns, yet the French out- 
to the others. numbered them by about one thou- 

2 Say's argument proceeds on the sand. See Black. Mag. March, 

40* 



4fJ4* GENERAL REFLECTIONS 

CHAP, the commercial marine was the most proper nursery for 



this purpose. Finally, if the burden of supporting the 
military establishments fell wholly upon the mother coun- 
try, there was the greater reason why the colonies should 
encourage her manufactures, or whatever else added to 
her wealth, and thus diminished the burden. To place the 
colonies on perfectly equal ground with the mother coun- 
try would have been impossible, since equal privileges are 
always accompanied by equal responsibilities. And, even 
had it been possible, it would have been as absurd as the 
bestowal upon the infant heir equality of privilege and 
precedent with those who gave him being, who protected 
his helplessness, who supplied his wants, and who taught 
him the true value of life. The obligation of obedience 
can only be laid aside on the attainment of majority. 

There is a manner of presenting this principle, which 
is in the highest degree unjust. The restrictive system 
was not one which compelled the colonies to sell in the 
cheapest and buy in the dearest markets. Such a policy 
has existence only in the profound speculations of polit- 
ical economists. Historians, also, in exhausting the terms 
of denunciation, are fond of vague and general expres- 
sions, and seldom condescend to practical details.^ Any 
system like this would rapidly have ruined the colonies, 
while, notwithstanding the restrictions, they continued to 
increase in wealth and prosperity.^ ^ A simple fact will 

1848, p. 309. In 1847, the United 2 At the Knglish Revolution, the 
States navy had in coiniTiisslon forty- population of Virginia exceeded six- 
seven vessels, numbering twelve hun- ty thousand, and, in the course oi 
dred guns, of which two or three 28 years, had more than dou- 
w^ere of the line. The number bled. See Chalmers's Annals, pp. 
building, or in ordinary, was thirty. 125, 356. At the Restoration, Vir- 
Thus, a navy three times the size of ginia contained thirty thousanil in- 
ours was required by England to habitants, and, at the Revolution, 
protect her colonies and commerce. more than sixty thousand ; showing 
1 See Grahame's remarks on what that the population doubled in about 
he calls " the impolicy of the exclu- 20 years, 
sive system," vol. i. p. 109. -^ In Virginia, their very "thriving 



ON THE ENGLISH COLONIAL POLICY. 4*75 

often overthrow a profound theory. England had no chap. 
desire to bring ruin upon her colonies. On the con- •^.- — 
trary, their wealth and prosperity, provided they contin- 
ued obedient and loyal, was her highest ambition.^ Nor 
should this have been deemed an unreasonable condition. 
They formed integral portions of the empire. They 
were members of the great body of the state. A gen- 
eral bankruptcy in Boston would have caused distress 
on the Royal Exchange. The failure of tobacco crops 
in Virginia would have been severely felt in London. 
While the greater the wealth and prosperity of the colo- 
nies, the larger would be the increase of English com- 
merce and shipping, and the more extensive the demand 
for those articles which were the productions of English 
art. Unless, then, it can be demonstrated that the good 
of mankind will be secured by abandoning the system of 
protection, and that such good is clearly paramount to 
national prosperity ,2 no parent state can be blamed for 
refusing to make her colonies a prey for the world. Until 
such proof is furnished by the advocates of free trade, 
their theories will be regarded, by the more enlightened 
statesmen, as the dreams of enthusiasts. And even 
should they succeed in showing that commerce would 



was their undoing." The richness put by them, profound and inge- 
of the soil insured crops profuse to nious, all lead them to opposite con- 
wantonness ; and, perhaps, by a elusions. Say proves that colonies 
righteous retribution, the importa- are injurious to the parent state, and 
tion of blacks so promoted cultiva- had better be relinquished altogether, 
tion, that the market easily became B. i. c. 19. Adam Smith, on the 
glutted ; and the only staple the Vir- contrary, thinks that they are only 
ginia planters, produced against the injurious when suffering under the 
wishes of every sovereign they obey- inonopoly of the mother country, 
ed, fell greatly in value. See Cul- Ricardo denies this proposition, and 
pepper's Statement in Chalmers's deduces from the very arguments of 
Annals, p. 357. Smith that the restrictions will ben- 

1 See Letter of Charles II. Hub- efit the mother country, but that the 
bard, p. 561. good of mankind will be promoted 

2 It is singular that theorists all by free trade, 
differ in opinion, and that the cases 



476 GENERAL REFLECTIONS 

CHAP, tlirlve better under the operation of their principles, some 
' — ^^ — ' there are, doubtless, who will refuse to believe that the 
destiny of mankind would be accomplished by turning 
the earth into a vast market. 

These, in brief, are the pleas that may be urged in 
defence of the colonial system of England. When we 
are gravely told by historians, that the tyrannical policy 
of the mother country was bringing ruin upon "the 
colonies, and justified their disobedience, we need but 
look to the rapid growth they exhibited for a suffi- 
cient refutation of such assertions. The mother country 
profited by the relation ; but was she not the progenitor 
of the colonies ^ Their productions increased her capital ; 
but this capital was expended for their welfare and pro- 
tection. By this wealth, England discharged a duty 
which properly belonged to Massachusetts, and supported 
teachers of Christianity among the tribes who owed 
nothing to the Puritans but revenge. Perfect reciprocity 
was more nearly obtained by the restrictive system than 
could have been acquired by free trade. The colonies 
had to contend against no foreign competition ; they were 
at all times sure of a market in which to buy and sell.^ 
The fact, that the merchant of London grew rich faster 
than the merchant of Boston, or that the English manu- 
facturer heaped up more substance than the Virginia 
planter, could have been no cause for discontent to candid 
and generous minds. Wlio can forget that fable so 
finely told by Livy, which was invented by a Roman 
senator to quell a ])lebeian insurrection. The limbs and 
organs revolted against the belly, because while they 
toiled from morning to night, it lay at its ease amidst 
them all, and indolently grew fat upon their exertions. 

1 Black. Mag. July, 1849, p. no. 



ON THE ENGLISH COLONIAL POLICY. 477 

The members refused to perform their accustomed parts, chap. 
and the teeth to chew the necessary food. But they soon ' — < — ' 
found that, instead of mortifying- the belly by these means, 
they only undid themselves, and that it was from the lazy 
and indolent belly that they derived strength to work, or 
courage to mutiny.^ 

The application of this story is obvious. England 
might have existed without the colonies, but upon the 
former, the colonies depended for their nourishment and 
support. They had not strength to protect themselves, 
or capital sufficient to compete with foreign monopolies. 
Behind them was an unknown wilderness, filled with 
savage and hostile tribes. On the north were the settle- 
ments of ambitious and warlike France. On the south 
lay the vast possessions of perfidious Spain. Before 
them rolled the limitless ocean, on whose bosom the 
commercial genius of the Dutch, ever active and cun- 
ning, flew with a swift wing in search of the estrays of 
Europe. Hapless would have been the fate of the col- 
ony, deserted by the parent state ere it had acquired 
sufficient strength to contend against the powers of the 
earth.^ 

Amidst this jarring of interests and of passions, we contrast 
are fortunately able to contrast the spirit of Puritanism Virginia 
with that of the Church. Virginia and Massachusetts cimsetts. 
stood side by side during the civil wars. Both beheld 
their sovereign struggling against fanaticism and rebel- 
lion. Both owed this sovereign some measure of grati- 
tude, beyond the mere duty of obedience. Their charters 
and immunities were, in many respects, analogous. But 
while Virginia only by compulsion abandoned the royal 



1 Liv. b. ii. c. 32. ^ See " Humble Petition to Par- 

liament," Hazard, vol. i. p. 529. 



47^ GENERAL REFLECTIONS 

CHAP, cause, and was the first portion of the empire to welcome 
" — ' — ' its restoration/ we see Massachusetts foremost in the 
rebelhon against her lawful sovereign, and the last to 
acknowledge the exiled Stuart. The very names of the 
Southern and Northern Colonies were significant. Vir- 
ginia, called after the wisest sovereign " of kingly and 
loyal " England, maintained, until the Church was neg- 
lected, firm and consistent fidelity. Even the acts of 
navigation only drew from her humble petitions ; for so 
the Church had taught her her duty. New England was 
equally well named. It had nothing in common with 
Old England but language. The literature and the arts 
of the mother country were as distasteful to Massachu- 
setts as was her religion. The Puritans viewed them all 
through the morbid medium of prejudice. Old and 
New England were as unlike in character as they were 
in appearance. The very statutes of the former were 
repudiated, as far as possible, in Massachusetts. Instead 
thereof, the Puritans substituted the terrible code of 
Mount Sinai, and even punished all attempts to appeal 
therefrom to the crown. But the Assembly of Virginia, 
the first legislature in the New World, applied to the 
General Court of the Company for a digest of the laws 
of England, sanctioned by the king ; for, said they, '• it 
is not fit that his subjects should be governed by any 
other rules than such as receive their influence from 
him." 2 
Howac- We are not to seek for the cause of such contrasts, 
counted ^^ ^vhit-h there are many, and which might be easily 
ex'tended to other of the British possessions — to Roman 
Catholic Maryland, the most peaceful and the happiest 
of the English colonies, and to the Quaker province of 

1 Chalmers Annals, pp. 124, 125. ^ ihij. p. 4^. 



ON THE ENGLISH COLONIAL POLICY. 479 

Pennsylvania, which was the last to desert the fallen 
dynasty of the Stuarts^ — in the diversity of interests or 
pursuits. The leading- men in both colonies were gentle- 
men. Many of them had received, at English universi- 
ties, the education suitable to their condition. Some had 
enjoyed the serene happiness of English country life ; 
and most of them could look back upon a boyhood, 
whose every association made familiar to their minds the 
cathedrals and the palaces, the histories and the tradi- 
tions, the festivals and the fasts, the glories and the miser- 
ies of their native country. But while Virginia retained 
the Church, which was the soul of England,^ and rejoiced 
in the grandeur of the nation from which she sprung, 
Massachusetts made it her chief merit before God, and 
her strongest plea before the king, that the enterprise 
which had converted the most rugged portion of the 
wilderness into a garden, was adverse to the Anglican 
Cliurch. 

Perhaps we may imagine the conflicting feelings of 
the Pilgrim Puritan, when reposing in the home his 
own industry had created on the western shores of the 
Atlantic. In some leisure moment, he casts his eyes 
towards the kingdom founded by Egbert, and beholds 
it clad in sackcloth. For the first time since the 
landing of St. Augustine, an English king has been 
murdered for defending the holy Faith.^ He sees holy 
altars everywhere thrown down, holy Scriptures cor- 
rupted in text and meaning, holy sacraments derided 
and trampled on, and the thrones of king and primate 

1 Chalmers's Annals, pp. 373- might have preserved himself if he 
654. would have sacrificed the Church. 

2 In Virginia, " the manner of If Charles, in political matters, was 
the English was daily to have pray- " infirm of purpose," he never 
ers, with a psalm." Stith. showed weakness when his con- 

3 It is generally conceded that, science was concerned, 
to all human appearance, Charles 



480 GENERAL REFLECTIONS 

involved in a common ruin. A doubt arises in the mind 
of the reflecting Puritan, whether these are tlie legitimate 
fruits of pure religion. But such a reverie as this 
is treason to his state and a sin against his church. 
He withdraws his eyes from the Old World, and fixes 
them upon the New. He sees the rugged soil of Mas- 
sachusetts blessed by Providence, and a New England 
springing up in another hemisphere. What matters it 
to him that the earliest charters of English kings to the 
enterprising navigators dedicated the lands they should 
discover to " the true Christian Faith professed in the 
Church of England V^ He beholds with pride what 
twenty years have done for the Pilgrims ; and now come 
thronging upon his mind a host of fancies which his late 
misgivings had driven from his memory. He pictures 
to himself superstitions and ceremonies. He searches, 
in the past, for instances of royal and prelatic tyr- 
anny. The king, whom he had almost looked upon as 
a martyr, becomes again, to his sobered mind, the per- 
secutor of God's saints. The aged prelate, whose blood 
seemed but now to cry out of the ground for vengeance, 
no longer troubles his peace.^ The Church and the 
State appear as before to his disordered vision. The 
regicides are once more judges ; and the enemies of 
Catholicism, the elect of God, Shall he not willingly 
forget father and mother, forsake country and home, and 
follow, like Abraham, God's guidance into the wilder- 
ness ] There, at least, he can build up institutions which 
shall be a terror to evil doers ; and he can go to his 
grave in peace, beholding afar off his own posterity as 

1 Hazard, vol. i. pp. 27-36. his folly. Hugh Peters was the con- 

- It is a singular fact, that the triver of this piece of brutality, and 

Puritans wished to transport Laud he procured a motion in the House 

to New England, in order that the of Commons to that effect, which, 

Sectarians there might triumph over however, was rejected. Southey. 



ON THE ENGLISH COLONIAL POLICY. 48 1 

the sand upon the sea-shore. Such may have been the chai'. 
reverie of a Cotton or a Hooker, on the arrival of the ^ — r^^ 
" high news about the king." 

Alas, for spiritual pride ! Its victim, beholding little 
but what is evil in others, complacently regards his own 
acts as prompted by the purest motives. It is equal to 
any emergency, and can assume any form. It is as 
impatient of restraint as it is fond of power. Whether 
rioting in the palace, or running wild in the forest ; 
whether wearing the robe of saint, or the sackcloth of 
sinner ; whether preaching of the sacred rights of the 
people, or seated at the right hand of despotic power ; 
it is the same great enemy of the true interests of man- 
kind. It enticed the freeborn subject of England to 
Massachusetts, and the freeman of Massachusetts it al- 
lured to the still freer Rhode Island, leaving him there 
doubting and bewildered. The Conformist it made 
Separatist, the Separatist Anabaptist, the Anabaptist 
Quaker, and the Quaker infidel. It teaches that worst 
of all heresies, the supremacy of reason over faith. It 
exults over the achievements of the mind, and forgets or 
neglects the abasement of the soul. 

True religion never exalts this life above the next ; 
how different the teaching and influence of a false ! The 
latter is ever yearning for an earthly paradise, whose 
only divinity is liberty. While straining after this Uto- 
pia, the troubles of a fleeting life are magnified into 
momentous calamities. Yet if man nobly contends with 
the difficulties of threescore and ten years ; if, true to 
his destiny, he sets an example of faith and moral cour- 
age, being, like St. Paul, content with the situation in 
which it has pleased his Creator to place him, he will 
accomplish a gracious work. What matters it now to 
Brutus whether a Caesar still tyrannizes 1 What cares 

41 



482 GENERAL REFLECTIONS 

Cromwell whether a Stuart still reigns ? The frag-ile 
urn, which contains the ashes of the dead, has survived 
the proudest nionuiuents of imperial Rome. The cross, 
which surmounts the spire of Canterhury, still glistens 
in the twihght that is settling" upon the throne. One 
principle only is eternal, and that is obedience. The 
voice of Nature proclaims it with quiet majesty, and the 
truth is echoed in the despairing cries of a degenerate 
race. It is the only warning that reaches us from amid 
the flowers and groves of mysterious Eden. 

Popular obedience is the only sure test of national 
happiness and prosperity. It alone produces that har- 
mony which unites individual enterprise with national 
effort. Amid arctic snows, in the industrial regions 
of the temperate zones, on the teeming plains of the 
equator, with Jew and Gentile, with Christian and 
Barbarian, the truth of this principle is equally exhib- 
ited. The rule is illustrated by its numerous excep- 
tions. In the Old and New World, we behold the 
misery which always attends upon a disobedient people, 
and the happiness and content with which every nation, 
in its own peculiar manner, enjoys the rewards of loy- 
alty. Is it necessary to point to Italy, or Ireland, or 
the revolutionary republics of South America, on the 
one side ; and to Russia, to England, and to our own 
great Republic, on the other ? " It is tiie glory of the 
Anglican Church, that she inculcates due obedience to 
lawful authority, and has been, in her princij)les and prac- 
tice, ever most unquestionably loyal." ^ On the day of 
the execution of the traitor Russell, the University of 
Oxford declared "submission and obedience, clear, abso- 
lute, and without exception, to be the badge and ciiaracter 

1 Address of Bishops to James II., 1687 



ON THE ENGLISH COLONIAL POLICY. 483 

of the Church of Eno-land." These are sentiments of chap. 

. VI. 

the highest suhHmity, for they are echoes of the voice ^ — . — ' 
of Jehovah. There have been exigencies where obe- 
dience ceased to be a virtue ; but these should have been 
occasions of sorrow, not the causes of popular rejoic- 
ing. By God, kings reign ; and by his Spirit, princes 
decree justice. This awful declaration, confirmed by the 
practice of pious Israel when weeping by the waters of 
Babylon, as well as by the Primitive Church during the 
tyranny of the Caesars, is still regarded by the Catholic 
priesthood, whether groaning under the despotism of the 
East, or exulting in the freedom of the West. And so 
it must ever be. The Church can never consent to 
anarchy and civil war, over the price of cotton or tobacco 
or sugar. She contends for more enduring trophies 
than the whistle of the steam-engine or the exportation 
of calico. 

And her influence was most happily exerted in Vir- 
ginia. That colony, in the space of twenty years., un- 1GO6-25. 
derwent frequent changes of government arid policy, 
and its final success continued long uncertain. But the 
code of la\vs issued under the sign-manual, and coeval 
with its first charter, bestowed upon the colony, as a royal 
gift, the Church of the mother country. The landing 
of the settlers of Jamestown was celebrated by the offer- 
ing of the Holy Eucharist ; and in the rites of religion 
they remembered their far distant home. The Church 
was the sepulchre of animosities and dissensions ; and, 
often as they changed their charters and their governors, 
whether treml)ling under the terrors of martial law, or 
expanding under the gentle sway of gubernatorial edicts ; 
whether enjoying the copious gains of a prosperous com- 
merce, or reduced by restrictions to the brink of supposed 
ruin ; their fidelity remained unshaken. " Lord bless 



4*84 GENERAL REFLECTIONS 

CHAP. England, our sweet native country," was the burden of 
— , — ' their thoughts and their frequent prayer. And tlie loy- 
alty thus cherished in its infancy had a marked influence 
upon the subsequent history of Virginia. 
(Character And now what shall be said of Puritanism 1 That it 

of Puritan- i i r r-i i t 

ism. erected one monument to the glory or Lrod, or exempli- 

fied the duty of obedience to the civil magistrate 1 That 
its altar was set up in the wilderness, consecrated by the 
prayers and blessings of the savage ? That its usurped 
powers were used to quell strife, to calm dissension, to 
strengthen peace, or to enforce equity ? That it pre- 
sented an example of humility and patience, for the guid- 
ance of those simple ones who were fascinated by its 
solemn pretence "? That, in all its doings, it had only 
in view " Glory to God in the highest, and on earth 
peace and good-will to men " ? Or are the eulogies 
it has received from history like the epitaphs upon tomb- 
stones 1 

Since the dawn of creation, the praises of the Supreme 
Being had been chanted in the M-ildernesses of New Eng- 
land. The forests teemed with gorgeous life, and not a 
brook babbled its sportive way, but glistened with the 
gambols of innumerable fish. Nature, animate and inan- 
imate, was full of joyous freedom, and the lord of the 
domain roved about unmindful of the glitter of gold or 
the splendor of courts. This system of Nature Puritan- 
ism subverted ; but its power of substitution sprang from 
the muzzles of its guns, and not from the kindly affec- 
tions of the heart. It subjugated Nature ; but the wild 
harmonies it destroyed were not replaced by the creations 
of Divine Art. It sought exclusively its own good, oi:, 
at least, it made that good paramount. Deriving its 
genius from the theocracy of stubborn Israel, it promised 
its disciples the prestige of temporal success and pros- 



ON THE CHARACTER OF PURITANISM. 485 

perity. It had an eye to the thing's of Caesar as well as chap. 
to those of Heaven. Join my ranks, was its promise, ^-^-^ 
and you shall he rich ; for the promised land belongs to 
the saints ; you shall be powerful, for God will fight your 
battles. Wherever it penetrated, its work was to destroy 
and create anew. It defaced the moral landscape of 
Catholicism, but was unable to substitute any thing so 
fair and so beautiful. The Church presented a vast 
area, on whose surftice could be seen rocks and caverns 
and pitfalls ; but then there were also quiet nooks and 
peaceful, gladsome vales, smiling in the brightness of an 
Eternal Sun. Puritanism was like a dreary waste over- 
hung by a wintry sky, where, if a gleam of light were 
perchance discernible, it but irradiated desolation. 

Surveying, at this distance of time, the wondrous events Protestant 

, . . ' ism the 

of the sixteenth century, the mind is startled at the dar- triumph of 

'' reuson over 

ing- and power of human reason. Systems that had been '""^ith. 
maturing for a thousand years ; faith that had ascended 
from the dark horizon of Judea, until its beams reached 
the remotest corners of the earth ; and that wonderful 
unity, which joined into one great family the nations of 
Christendom ; these all were attacked, and either shattered 
or defaced. The freaks of mad popes were treasured in 
the armory of Protestantism, and used as weapons of 
attack against the claims of the Church. Reason, stirred 
up to action, confronted her great enemy. Faith, and 
taught pleasing heresies, whde the latter inculcated un- 
pleasing truths. Reason appealed to the instincts of the 
natural man ; Faith jiointed to the consummation of the 
cross. Reason flattered ; Faith humiliated. The tri- 
umphs of Reason were innovations ; the rewards of Faith, 

" — every thing that speaks of hearts at ease, 
" And such old customs as the heart delights in, 
" Harmless obicrvances and superstitions, 
"All kind and gentle." 
41* 



486 GEM'RAL REFLECTIONS 

Puritanism grew out of the Eng-lish, as Protestantism 
out of the Roman Church. It fattened upon the infirmi- 

the Trot- ties of bishops, as did the latter upon those of popes. 

of England. It was, in short, the Protestantism of England ; and it 
regarded the throne of the primate with the same horror 
with which Lutheranism viewed the chair of St. Peter. 
One sin committed by a bishop would have been worth 
more to Puritanism than all the law and the prophets. 
In truth, though it spread open the pages of Holy Writ 
to the curiosity or contempt of the people, its object was 
still further to prejudice their minds against Episcopacy. 
If texts were wanting, it did not scruple to invent them. 
It was restrained by no feeling of veneration, for it had 
no past to venerate. Unlike the holy Ezra, it sought 
not to reform the Church where God had placed his 
name, but to break it down. It set up the altar of Free 
Inquiry, and burned thereon strange incense. Appealing 
to popular passions, it taught the grievous error, that 
liberty is worth more to humanity than the discipline of 
obedience. Hating true liberty, and despising the true 
rights of the people, it at the same time professed to be 
the friend of both. It gave the richest treasure of the 
Church into the hands of the ignorant and profane, but 
condemned the recipients to the lowest perdition if they 
squandered this gift, or converted it to their own use. 
It passed from Old to New England, and the ravages it 
commenced in the former were consummated in the wilds 
and forests of the latter. In the one, its work was to 
destroy ; in the other, to create and make anew. 

" Men who have ceased to reverence, soon defy 
Their forefathers." 

Pnritanisni Puritanism was eminently superstitious : but its super- 
eminently J I ' 1 

tioufT'' stition was the offspring of fear, and not of veneration. 



ON THE CHARACTER OF PURITANISM. 487 

It hovered not, like a perfumed mist, over the scenery of chap. 
the past. It gave no refinement to manners, or grace to ^ — ■'-^ 
literature. It did not nerve the arm in the day of battle, 
nor soften the heart in the hour of conquest. It abode 
not near the tomb of the saint and the hero ; it was 
unemblazoned by art, unconsecrated by tradition. Much 
of the early history of New England Puritanism is occu- 
pied with the relation of marvels, sometimes shocking, 
generally childish, but never appealing to the nobler sen- 
timents of the heart. The Puritans were inadequate to 
romance or poetry. The strange sounds they heard, the 
appalling sights they witnessed,^ the mysteries that en- 
compassed their fields and waters, the witches who teased 
them by day, and the evil spirits which " peeped and 
muttered " by night, are mentioned in startling detail, 
and cold, matter-of-fact expression, wjiich could neither 
point a moral nor adorn a tale. They derided the sign 
of the cross, but saw magic in a broomstick. They 
scorned the sacrificial service of the altar, but trembled 
before the senseless mummeries of old women. If the 
leaves of a prayer-book were gnawed by mice,^ they 
adored the wonder-working Providence of God ; but let 
the lightning blast one of their most famous destroyers 
of Indian life,^ and it was only a deplorable accident. 
Their superstition was selfish as well as blind. For 
them, and them alone, the earth revolved, the sun shone, 
comets flew in their eccentric orbits, seasons came and 
went with their manifold glories, plants and flowers were 

1 Winthrop mentions, that on the the water in a dreadful manner, and 

1 8th of January, 1643, the devil was shifted about from place to place, 

seen over against two islands in Bos- Hubbard, who wrote about 1682, 

ton harbor, in form like a man, and relates this fact with becoming 

emitting sparks and tlames of tire. At gravity, 
the same time, a voice was heard by ^ See ante, p. 414. 
persons who resided between Boston 3 Ante, p. 118. 
and Dorchester, which sounded upon 



Uire. 



488 GENERAL REFLECTIONS 

CHAP, arrayed in superhuman beauty. For them, war, pesti- 
' — V — ' lence, and famine afflicted mankind. For them, the 
angel of death spread liis wings, and swept from the 
earth kings, thrones, churchjes, and even whole nations. 
to"mera-^^ Allied to this gross superstition was an utter contempt 
for literature. Puritanism, arrayed in her brightest ar- 
mor, with colleges and schools and bibles ad libitum^ 
performed no literary feat worthy of outliving the leaves 
of an almanac.^ Her histories are valuable, not as acces- 
sions to the republic of letters, not always as truthful 
annals of current events, but chiefly for the warning 
they afford their readers. The coloring of romance, 
which might so easily have been given to the Indian 
wars, and which would have served to disguise, partially 
at least, their amazing atrocity, is not to be found on the 
pages of the sterp annalists of Plymouth or Massachu- 
setts. True, there was but little encouragement in the 
wilderness for the cultivation of letters. The axe was a 
more useful implement than the pen ; and the reclaiming 
of one foot of sandy soil was of more importance to the 
colony than all the books in Christendom. It was not 
the want, but rather the contempt of literature, that is 
so remarkable. Even their lyrical poetry was purposely 
barbarous ; and they excused these uncouth compositions 
by the declaration, that " God's altars need not our pol- 
ishings." Their theology, more voluminous than their 
history, is now antiquated in the very places where, for- 
merly, its teachings were inculcated by the aid of the 
scourge and the prison. The sermons of the famous 
elders would now excite derision, if preached from the 



1 We learn from Diinton's Me- stances, if not rich. What did they 

moirs that in 1685 there were at sell ? See 2 Mass. Hist. Coll. vol. 

least four booksellers in Boston, ii. p. 102. 
who were in prosperous circum- 



ON THE CHARACTER OF PURITANISM. 489 

pulpits they formerly occupied. In short, it may be said chap. 
that an ill-disguised contempt for the fruits of intellectual • — v — ' 
cultivation is one of the peculiarities that confers immor- 
tality upon this singular system.^ 

Puritanism, it has been said, was the religion of the An enemy 
people. It was not over them, but with them. But leiigious 

1^ ^ . . . . liberty. 

such was not its theory or its practice. Like Protestant- 
ism, generally, wherever it prevailed, it was established 
by the power of the state.^ True it is, that Protestantism 
led the way in the greatest movement that the world had 
yet witnessed; a movement which resulted in complete 
emancipation. Yet its concessions to popular liberty were 
obtained only by popular power. Who can recognize 
the Puritan of the sixteenth century in the Freethinker 
of the nineteenth ? Yet they have the same unquestion- 
able origin. Who can distinguish the Puritan creed in 
the Latitudinarian mist that now envelops Germany and 
Switzerland 1 Yet, without a doubt, this cloud overhangs 
the stream which was diverted by the great reformers. 
Indeed, it seems as if the two sciences of religion and 



1 The following is a panegyric on " Thomas Dudley," who died in 
1^53 : — 

Hold, Mast, JFe Dy. 

"When swelling gusts of Antinomian breath 
"Had well nigh wrecked this little bark to death ; 
"When oars 'gan crack, and anchors, then we cry, 
" Hold firm, brave mast, thy stand, or else we die. 
"Our orth'dox mast did hold, we did not die ; 
" Our mast now rolled by th' board, (poor bark) we cry. 
"Courage, our pilot lives, who stills the waves; 
"Or midst the surges, still his bark he saves." 

This is a fair specimen of the poet- divines allow a power in the civil 

ical composition of "a reverend per- magistrate, not only in worldly regi- 

son of the clergy." See Hubbard, ment, but also in spiritual, tor the 

pp. 541, 552- 606. Johnson's preservati'on of the state." Hub- 

" Wonder Working Providence," bard. It was not until Protestant- 

etc, passim. ism had trained its children into infi- 

2 The Protestants wove this fact delity, that it became able to re- 
into the form of a principle. Thus, nounce a state protection. 

says an old writer, " all Protestant 



490 GENERAL REFLECTIONS 

CHAP, politics had changed places under the anomalous develop- 
^-—r-^ nients of Protestantism. Religion, which can never alter 
in faith or doctrine ; which, unchangeahle as its great 
Founder, had always been preserved by fixed and vener- 
able formularies and dispensed by legitimate authority, 
has, in the hands of the people, been made to bend and 
cringe to every caprice of humanity. Whereas political 
science, which has reference entirely to the social order 
and temporal happiness of the race, and the economy of 
which must change ^ith climates, circumstances, and 
progress ; which, to be healthy and soun'd, must grow 
up gradually with the genius of a nation, unhampered 
by forms and set rules, has, in the same hands, been 
reduced to stereotyped and fixed constitutions. The 
decline of the one, and the almost total disregard of the 
other, are sufficiently significant of the operation of these 
novel principles. And it may be stated as a universal 
truth, that wherever •' the form of sound words," en- 
joined by the Apostle to be held fast,^ has been laid aside, 
religion has, in consequence, lost its fundamental truths ; 
and whenever it has been attempted to define political 
rights by written constitutions, the latter have, in opera- 
tion, been found wholly useless. The genius of a nation 
can never be constrained by formularies, however equable 
and just. 
A<ivoeutes It is somcwhat startling to reflect that these and other 

the iiidis- ,...„„.. , , 

criiniiiiite peculiarities 01 1 uritanism were more or less remotely 
Bible. connected with the unrestricted use of the Holy Scrip- 
tures. Here was a compilation of sacred writings, which 
had reposed in the bosom of the Church Catholic since 
the middle of the fourth century.^ The most impor- 

1 2 Timothy, ch. i. v. 13. tioned by the Council of Nice. Eu- 

'^ It is supposed by many that the sebius, who lived A. D. 315, seems 

Bible, in its present form, was sane- to have been one of the first ot the 



ON THE CHARACTER OF PURITANISM. 491 

tant portions of the apostolic writings were collected chap. 
by the zeal of primitive Christians, authorized by prim- ^^^-^ 
itive councils, and deposited as a sacred trust in the 
Church, to be by her interpreted and administered.^ 
Under this system, all was harmony ; but when the 
sacred writings were torn from the custody of the 
Church, and given indiscriminately into the hands of the 
laity, confusion and opposition were the almost innnediate 
consequences. That portion of the New Testament con- 
sisting of the letters of apostles to various churches 
which they had established, affected by local circum- 
stances and qualified by various accidents and contingen- 
cies, were found by the private reasoner to involve diffi- 
culties of so grave a nature, as to lead his mind to open 
skepticism or fanatical absurdities. Nor was this the 
case with the ignorant only. Luther himself struck the 
Epistle of St. James from the New Testament, because 
it did not correspond with his favorite theory of Justifica- 
tion, and pronounced it an epistle of straw, fit only to be 
burned.^ The example thus set by the founder of private 
reasoning, was followed by his disciples generally. No 
theorist, in religion or politics, put forth his claims to the 
world, but found some text to support his system, or 
struck out some passage that was hostile to it. As the 
legitimate fruits of this evil, the Sacred Writings have 
been the cause of all manner of infidelity. Science has 

Christian authors whose catalogue which were, and which were not 

of the books of the New Testament canonical, resided in the Church, 

corresponds exactly with ours. Hist. l This was following out the 

Eccl. 1. 3, c. 25. St. Athanasius's command of our Saviour to his dis- 

catalogue is equally complete ; and ciples. These men (the Scribes) 

yet some authors who lived subse- sit in Moses's seat ; all, therefore, 

quently give imperfect catalogues, they bid you observe, that observe 

It seems, from the Apostolical Ca- and f/o. Math. ch. xxiii. v. 2. No 

nons, that the list of canonical books Scripture is of any private interpre- 

varied in dilTerent dioceses, which tation. 2 St. Peter, ch. i. v 20. 

shows that the power of declaring 2 g^e an able article on Luther in 

Christ, Rembr. Jan. 1848. 



492 



GENERAL REFLECTIONS 



Which 

causes its 
decline. 



CHAP, ridiculed the Mosaic history, and scoffed at the not less 
— V — marvellous acts which ushered in the new creation. Rea- 
son has holdly questioned the mystery of the Eternal 
Godhead, and pointed with derision at the awful consum- 
mation of the cross. Ignorance and presumption, ever 
hand in hand, have united to hreak down that noble Tree 
planted by Christ himself, because, forsooth, it has borne 
some decayed branches. But, amidst all the desolation 
of the world, it still lives, exhibiting a miracle more 
wonderful than that performed at the humble cave in 
Bethany. For its roots are cherished by no mortal 
hand, and eternal sunshine lingers upon its fragrant 
foliage. 

Puritanism did not come behind other forms of Prot- 
estantism in divesting the Sacred Scriptures of their true 
worth and dignity. It forced the Bible into the hands 
of the illiterate ; and persecuted the recipients, because 
some became Quakers, others Baptists, others Ranters, 
and still others open disbelievers. Thus Puritanism had 
no unity, and was like a house divided against itself. 
Its temples were shrines of division, its pulpits forums 
of debate. Its teachings were fiery arguments, not 
gentle exhortations ; and, as it was independent of all 
spiritual authority, it was perpetually changing its posi- 
tions, like the vanes upon its steeples. It received the 
truths of eternity, not from '' mouldy tradition," not 
from " priestcraft," not from " Popery," not from " hier- 
archies." Its oracles were the loudest declaimers and 
the most plausible disputants. It wrestled with the 
imaginations of its listeners rather than with the powers 
of darkness. It appealed to ])rejudice, fancy, reason, 
in short, to any and every thing, rather than Faith. 
And so that famous system, which had clothed a great 
nation in sackcloth, and which, fleeing to primeval forests 



ON THE CHARACTER OF PURITANISM. 493 

for shelter, soon draped the very wilderness in mourning-, 
fell hy its own hands. In a religious sense, it left 
nothing- behind it but warnings. The synods, the con- 
fessions, the platforms, and the heresies which distin- 
guish its reign in New England, are in marked contrast 
with that noble Church it presumptuously hoped to 
displace, and which, since the days of its Catholic de- 
fenders, has neither altered an article of its creed nor a 
principle of its government. 

Puritanism, as a system, passed away from Massachu- 
setts with the First Charter. Not so the principles 
which had grown up under its protection, and which 
remained in the minds of the people, like rocks when 
the flood subsides. The development of their character is 
the history of the great Western Republic, of the French 
Revolutions, of the new aspect of the world. Our coun- 
try, reaching from sea to sea, received its first impulse 
in the homely meeting-houses of Puritanism. Each 
little band of Pilgrims, under its chosen shepherd, was 
a free and independent state. There Nvas assembled the 
future caucus-loving nation. There preached the future 
patriot, and there listened the war-worn army of liberty. 
In a century, behold the meeting-house has swelled into 
the capitol, and church-members have become citizens of 
a stupendous empire ! 

But I cannot part from the old Puritans of Massachu- 
setts without a feeling of regret. The mildly firm Win- 
throp, the fanatical Endecott, the aspiring Dudley, and 
the morose Bellingham seem almost like familiar friends, 
since I have passed so many pleasant hours in their 
" godly companie." And with them, too, that more 
ambitious band of Hooker and Wilson and Davenport, 
and Cotton, the greatest of them all. I can now behold 
their stalwart forms and austere countenances, as they 

42 



494« GENERAL REFLECTIONS, ETC. 

tread the soil of their little domain, in the full conscious- 
ness of their great mission. And I can join, too, in 
paying those marks of outward respect, which they claim 
from the goodmen and goodwives around them. Happy 
was it for their peace that futurity did not reveal to them 
the legitimate results of their principles ! More fortu- 
nate, perhaps, for us, since Winthrop's fleet might never 
have ploughed the waters of Massachusetts Bay ! 



INDEX. 



A. 



Aborigines, treatment of the, by the Puri- 
tans of Massachusetts, 98. 

Anabaptists, The, origin of, 219. Te- 
nets of, 220. Laws against, in Massa- 
chusetts, 222. Punishment of Obadiah 
Holmes, 223. Henry Dunster, 223. 
Schism produced by, 224. How treat- 
ed by the Puritans, 225. Persecutions 
of, checked by influence from England, 
226. 

Andros, Sir Edmund, arrival of, in Mas- 
sachusetts, 346. Character of the ad- 
ministration of, 347. Restraint upon 
marriages, 347. Fees for quitrents to 
crown lands, 348. Levying of taxes, 
350. Other arbitrary acts of, 351, 447. 
Causes of the unpopularity of, 352. 
Character of, 353. Humane policy of, 
towards the Indians, frustrated by the 
outrages of the charter government, 
357. Kind as a general, 358. The 
elders excite a rebellion against, 359. 
Seizure and imprisonment of, 361. 
Acquitted by the king, 362. Ap- 
pointed Governor of Virginia, 363. 
Entreats the ciders in behalf of the 
Church, 446. 

Anglo-Saxon Church, 371. Its relation 
to the See of Rome, 372. Happy in- 
fluence of, 373. 

Antinomianism, 169. Peculiar tenets of, 
170. Not confined to Massachusetts, 
172. Condemned by a synod, 178. 
Banishment of the leaders of, 180. 

Assistants, The, duties of, 52. Claim to 
be judges, 80. 

Augustine, mission of, to Britain, 372. 
First Archbishop of Canterbury, 372. 



B. 



Bancroft, as an historian, 5. 

Baptism, divisions on the subject of, in 
the Puritan Church, 184. Synod con- 
cerning, 185. Second synod, 187. 

Berkeley, Dean, testimony of, with regard 
to the treatment of the Narragansetts 
by the Puritans, 135. 

Boston, great fire in, 324. 

Brook, Lord, 63. 

Browne, John and Samuel, 16. Perse- 
cution of, by Endecott, 17. Petition 
for redress, 18. 



Canonchet, heroism of, 133. 

Charles I., object of, in promoting colo- 
nization in the New World, the exten- 
sion of the Church, i. Grants a char- 
ter to the Massachusetts Bay Company, 
13. Appoints Cradock its first gov- 
ernor, 13. Did not intend to encour- 
age dissent, 32. Appoints a royal 
commission to protect and govern the 
colonies, 44. Vindication of, 49. Sym- 
pathy for, not allowed to be expressed 
in Massachusetts, 272. Contests of, 
with parliament, 398. Policy of, dur- 
ing the Puritan troubles, 399. Com- 
mercial policy of, 458. 

Charles II., address of the general court 
to, 50. Usurpations of Massachusetts 
over Maine, annulled by the commis- 
sioners of, 147. Letter of, respecting 
the Quakers, 218. Massachusetts re- 
fuses to acknowledge, 285. Loyal ad- 
dress of the general court, 287. An- 
swer of, to this address, 288. Answer 



496 



INDEX. 



of, to the agents of Massachusetts, 294. 
Letter of, disregarded by Massachu- 
setts, 296. Third letter of, 315. Fourth 
letter of, 319. Dispatches Randolph 
to Boston, 319. The agents of Mas- 
sachusetts offer to bribe, 330. Death 
of, 332. Kirk selected by, as Governor 
of New England, 335. The Naviga- 
tion Laws of, 465. Their fourfold ob- 
ject, 468. How received by the colo- 
nies, 468. 

Charter of the Massachusetts Bay Com- 
pany, grant of the, 13. Objects to be 
gained by its transfer, 19. Its transfer 
proposed, 20. Advocated by Cradock, 

* 20. Reasons urged in favor of the 
transfer of, 20. The transfer decided 
upon, 21. The decision not unani- 
mous, 21. Passes into the hands of 
the Puritans, 21. The objects of this 
measure, 22. Character and true ob- 
ject of, 23. Not intended as an immu- 
nity to the Puritans, 23, 25. Contains 
no grant sufficient for the establishment 
of a state, 27. As an act of incorpo- 
ration complete, 27. The powers grant- 
ed by, 27. As a political constitution, 
confused and objectless, 30. How con- 
strued by the Puritans, 31. Not am- 
biguous, 32. Presupposed the residence 
of the company in England, 34, 53. 
Its transfer investigated by the commis- 
sioners, 45. Transmission of, to Eng- 
land, ordered, 48. The judicial au- 
thority conferred by, 76. Effects of its 
transfer on the judiciary, 77. Surrender 
of, ordered, 280. Judgment against, 
331. Effect of this measure, 333. Not 
Puritan in its character, 368. 

Child, Robert, 420. Efforts of, in behalf 
of religious liberty in Massachusetts, 
422. With Maverick, petitions for the 
laws of England, 422. For civil liberty, 
424. For religious liberty, 424. Spirit 
of the petition, 425. Indignation of 
the elders, 426. Answer of the general 
court to the petition, 427. Trial of, 
with the other petitioners, 428. Appeal 
of the petitioners to parliament, 429. 
Denounced by the elders, for appealing, 

429- 

Church, The English, antiquity of, 370. 
Represented in primitive councils, 371. 
Relation of, to the Roman See, 372. 
Condition of, at the time of the Norman 
Conquest, 377. Usurpation of Rome, 



not sanctioned by the early, 381. True 
claims of, 382. Catholicity of, testified 
to by parliament, 389. Absurdity of 
Puritan arguments against, 392. Con- 
sidered as Antichrist by the Puritans, 
413. Growing enmity to, in Massa- 
chusetts, aided by superstition, 413. 
Promoted by legislation, 415. Penalty 
for observing the holy days of, 415. 
Randolph opens the way for, in Massa- 
chusetts, 438. Obstacles to his suc- 
cess, 440. Formation of the Society of 
King's Chapel, 444. Opposition of 
the elders to, 444. Andros entreats 
the elders in behalf of, 446. Loyalty 
of the members of, 449. Inculcates 
obedience to lawful authority, 482. 
Obedience declared, by the University 
of Oxford, to be the badge and charac- 
ter of, 482. Influence of, in Virginia, 

483- 

Church, formation of the Third, in Bos- 
ton, 189. 

Colonies, rise of the English, 454. Three 
classes of, 455. Conflict between the 
crown and charter, 456. 

Commissioners, The royal, alarm of the 
elders at the appointment of, 435. Ar- 
rival of, in Massachusetts, 298. Errand 
of, 299. Depart for the IManhadoes, 
301. The Confederation broken up by, 
304. Rumors concerning, 305. Ap- 
peal to the general court, 306. Reply 
of the general court to, 307. Rejoinder 
of, 308. Communicate their instruc- 
tions to the general court, 308. Objec- 
tions raised against the court of, 309. 
Reasons for their authority, urged by, 
309. Answer of the general court to 
charges made by, 310, 436. Reply of, 
311. Organize their court, 312. The 
court of, not recognized by Massachu- 
setts, 312. Close their labors in Mas- 
sachusetts, 313. 

Conference at Hampton Court, frustrates 
the designs of the Puritans, 392. 

Confederation, The, of the New England 
Colonics, 274. Providence and Rhode 
Island excluded from, 275. Articles 
of, 276. Objects of, 277. Frustrated 
by parliament, 279. Broken up by the 
royal commissioners, 304. 

Contract System, The, evils of, 159. Ob- 
jections of Cotton Mather to, 160. 

Corporations, characteristics which distin- 
guish, 26. Can have no rights but such 



INDEX. 



497 



as are specifically granted, 31. Three 
classes ot, 33. 
Cotton, Rev. John, his view of democracy, 
54. Sermon of, 67. Infected with Anti- 
nomianism, 169, 172. Speech of, to pas- 
sengers about to sail for England, 175. 
Reconcilement of, 180. Public Con- 
fession of, 182. No tolerationist, 193. 
Advice of, to the Puritan Pilgrims, on 
their departure for the New World, 

233- 

Covenant, The, 54. Object of, 162, 

Cradock, Matheu-, first Governor of the 
Massachusetts Bay Company, 13. Ad- 
vocates the transfer of the charter, 20. 
Ordered to exhibit the charter, 41. 

Cromwell, Massachusetts petitions, 281. 
Effect of his death in Massachusetts, 
285. Colonial policy of, 469. 

Cushman, Robert, 103. 



D. 



Davenport, Rev. John, 188. Called to 
the First Church, 188. Protest of the 
elders against, 189. 

Dissent, English, iniquitous character of, 
■383. Did not arise from any reason- 
able cause for complaint, 384. Pri- 
vate reasoning, in opposition to author- 
ity^ 385- 

Dudley, Joseph, commission of, 337. Re- 
sentment against, 338. . Intrigues against 
the commission, 339. Policy of, 445. 

Dunstan, St., 377. 

Dunster, Rev. Henry, forced to resign his 
office, on account of his views on bap- 
tism, 164, 223. 

Dyer, Mary, execution of, 215. 



Elders, The, with the magistrates, estab- 
lish the covenant, 54. Establish a 
council for life, 63. Erect the magis- 
trates into a senate, 66. Peculiar posi- 
tion of, in the Church, 157. Anxiety 
of, concerning Antinomianism, 171. 

Eliot, Rev. John, missionary efforts of, 
238. His zeal, 238. Establishes a settle- 
ment at Nonantum, 239. Translates 
the Bible into the Indian tongue, 242. 
Commenced his missionary labors un- 
patronized, 249. 

Emigration, the Puritan, motives of, 402. 

Endecott, John, appointed superintendent 

42 * 



of the Massachusetts Bay Compajiy, 
12. Letter of instructions to, 14. Com- 
plains of the irregularities of the Eng- 
lish, 15. Letter of the company to, 16. 
Becomes a Brownist, 16, 369. Expe- 
dition of, against the Pequods, no. 
Ravages Block Island, iii. Message 
of Sassacus to, 112, 113. Removes the 
cross froin the English flag, 264. Trial 
and sentence of, 265. 

Episcopacy, declared, by the first Puritan 
synod in Massachusetts, an invention of 
man, 415. 

Europeans, title of, to the New World, 23. 



Familists, the rise of, 194. Origin of, 

194. 
Franciscans, The, labors of, in Maine, 

254- 
Freemen, The, claim to be a privileged 
body, 56. Assert their rights, 58. 
Selfishness of, 74. Demand a body of 
laws, 8 1 . 



Gaming, prevalence of, in the Puritan 
Commonwealth, 94. 

Gardiner, Sir Christopher, 35. Character 
of, 36. Flies from Massachusetts, 36. 
Places himself under the protection of 
the Indians, 36. Taken captive, 37. 
Imprisonment of, 37. 

Gorton, Samuel, 195. Persecution of, 
196. Trial of, with his followers, 200. 
Denied an appeal to the king, 202. 
Sentence of, 202. Flies to England, 
203. 

Gorges, Sir Ferdinando, appointed Gov- 
ernor General of New England, 47. 

Gosnold, voyage of, 7. 

Grahame, as an historian, 3, 32. 

Gregory, the Great, desire of, for the con- 
version of the Angles, 371. 



H. 



Hampton Court, Conference at, 389. 

Frustrates the designs of the Puritans, 

392- 
Harvard College, foundation of, 416. 

Influence of, 417. 
Hiacoomes, conversion of, by May hew, 

235- 



498 



INDEX. 



High Treason, first recognized by Mas- 
sachusetts, 322. 
Hildebrand, 379. 
Historians, erroneous spirit of, popular, 

453- 
Hooker, Rev. Thomas, 41. 
Hutchinson, Anne, 169. Banishment of, 

180. Inclined to Familism, 195. 



I. 



Independency, the fundamental principle 

of, 155- 

Independents, The, sympathies of the Pu- 
ritans with, 161. 

Indians, origin of the North American, 
100. Become rapidly demoralized, un- 
der the influence of Puritanism, 104. 

Intemperance in the Puritan Common- 
wealth, 94. 



J- 



James I., grant of, to the London and 
Plymouth Companies, 7. Petition to, 
of the thousand ministers, 392. Eccle- 
siastical policy of, 393. 

James II., commission of Dudley by, 337. 
Colonial system of, 341. Its merits 
examined, 342. Arbitrariness of, com- 
pared with the tyranny under the char- 
ter, 345. Treatment of, by Queen 
Mary, 360, 450. 

Jesuit Missions, in New France, 253. 

Jones, Sir William, opinion of, on taxa- 
tion, 343. 

K. 

King's Chapel, formation of the parish of, 

444. 
Kirk, Colonel, selected by Charles II., 

as Governor of New England, 335. 

Brief allusion to the character of, 336. 



Laws, the'freemen demand a body of. Si. 
Lechford, Thomas^ testimony of, on the 

condition of the disfranchised class, 74. 
Legislature, the general court becomes a, 

60. The two branches of, first hold 

sessions by themselves, 69. 



M. 



Magistrates, The, assume to be an oli- 



garchy, 53. Call the elders to their 
support, 6 1. The power of, in the 
punishment of heresy, analogous to that 
exercised by the court of high commis- 
sion, 163. 

Marriage, declared to be a civil contract 
only, 415. 

Massachusetts, treaty of, with the Pe- 
quods, 107. Invasion of the Pequod 
territory, iio. The Narragansetts en- 
ter into a treaty with, 113. Nature of 
this treaty, 119. Destruction of the 
Pecjuods, 114. Its Indian allies, how 
regarded by, 120. Miantonimo ordered 
to appear before the general court, 122. 
His defeat and capture, 124. He is 
sentenced to death, 125. The Narra- 
gansetts seek the aid of, to avenge his 
death, 126. Makes preparations' for 
war with the Narragansetts, 128. Treat- 
ment of the Narragansett deputation by, 
129. Extorts a new tieaty from them, 
131. Becomes alarmed at their luke- 
warmness in its observance, 132. Pre- 
pares for war, 132. Total destruction 
ot the Narragansetts, 133. War with 
King Philip, 140. Proclamation of 
the general court at the close of the 
war, 146. War with the Tarranteens, 
146. Seeks the alliance of the Mo- 
hawks, 148. D<;feat of the allies, 149. 
Conduct of, during the civil wars, 267. 
Sends a deputation to England, 268. 
The Long Parliament encourages the 
trade of, 269. Embraces the parlia- 
mentary cause, 270. Acknowledges 
that she is represented in parliament, 
through the manor of East Lireenwich, 
270, 343. Makes it a capital olfence 
to side with King Charles, 272. Sends 
soldiers to join the English rebels, 273. 
Confederates with the other New Eng- 
land Colonies, 273. Objects sought by 
this union, 277. Exercises the right of 
coinage, 279. Ordered to surrender her 
charter, 280. Petitions parliament and 
Cromwell, 281. Aggrandizing schemes 
of, 282. Considers herself an ally only 
of Cromwell, 283. ElVect of Crom- 
well's death in, 285. Refuses to ac- 
knowledge Charles II., 285. Sudden 
reaction in, 286. Loyal address of, to 
the king, 287. The elders and magis- 
trates arc dissatisfied with the king's 
answer, 288. Declaration of rights, 
289. Charles II. proclaimed by, 291. 



INDEX. 



499 



Sends a special mission to England, 
292. Agreeable disappointment of the 
agents, 293. Ingratitude of, towards 
her agents, 295. Effect of this mission, 
296. The general court of, secretes the 
charter, 298. Arrival of the royal com- 
missioners in. 299. Refuses to accede 
to the royal demands, 301. Addresses 
the king, 302. Answer of the general 
court to charges made by the commis- 
sioners, 310. The court of commis-' 
sioners not recognized by, 312. The 
commissioners retire from, 313. Third 
letter of Charles II. to, 315. Again 
disobeys the king, 316. Policy of, dur- 
ing the wars with Holland and France, 

317. Gift of, to the king, 317. Rapid 
advance of, in wealth and population, 

318. Fourth royal letter to, 319. Sends 
a deputation to England, 320. Pur- 
chases the proprietorship of Maine, 320. 
Refuses to comply with a request of 
the king, to give up the purchase, 321. 
Difficulties of the agents, 321. First 
recognizes .the crime of high treason, 
322. Agents of, urge a fuller compli- 
ance with the demands of the king, 322. 
Recalls her agents, 324. The Lords 
Commissioners of Plantations address 
the governor and assistants of, 326. 
Conflicting emotions of the elders, 327, 
Sends agents to England, 328. Offers 
a bribe to the king, 330. Judgment 
against the charter, 330. Effect of this 
measure, 333. Fears in, concerning a 
royal governor, 334. Dudley's com- 
mission, 337. How received by, 338. 
Plots for the overthrow of the new gov- 
ernment, 339. Mild nature of the com- 
mission and its government, 339. How 
represented in parliament, 343. Sir 
Edmund Andros arrives in, 346. Char- 
acter of his administration, 347. Re- 
straint upon marriages, 347. Fees for 
quitrents to crown lands, 348. Levy- 
ing of taxes, 350. Petition to the king, 
355' War with the Eastern Indians, 
356. The elders excite a rebellion 
against Andros, 359. Political struggle 
in, between the liberal and prerogative 
parties, 361. Answer of the general 
court to the petition of Child and Mav- 
erick, 427. Trial of the petitioners, 
for sedition, 428. Church policy in, 
dt the Restoration, 431. The elders 
alarmed at the restoration of the 



Church, 432. Assert the Divine char- 
acter of Puritanism, 433. Refuse to 
allow the use of the Common Prayer, 
434. Again refuse to allow Church- 
men liberty of conscience, 435. Nav- 
igation Laws, how received by, 468. 
Contrast between Virginia and, 477. 
How accounted for, 478. 

Massachusetts Bay Company, The, forma- 
tion of, 12. Obtains a grant, 12. En- 
decott appointed superintendent of, 12. 
Obtains a royal charter, 13. Had no 
power to levy taxes, 27. Had no power 
to assemble representatives, 27. Or to 
erect courts of judicature, 27. 

Massasoit, 136. 

Mather, Rev. Cotton, objections of, to the 
contract system, 160. 

Mather, Rev. Increase, goes to England, 
to avoid prosecution, 354. Together 
with Newell and Hutchinson, petitions 
the king, 355. 

Maverick, Samuel, petition of, 168. Fined 
and imprisoned, 415. Not connected 
with the Puritan emigration, 419. Kind- 
ness of, to the Indians, 419. Excluded, 
By the elders, from all participation in 
the ordinances of religion, 420. Peti- 
tions, with Child, for the laws of Eng- 
land, 422. For civil liberty, 424. For 
religious liberty, 424. 

Mayhew, Rev. Thomas, missionary labors 
of, 235. His success, 236. 

Miantonimo, summoned before the gen- 
eral court, 122. Wins the respect of 
the English, by his bearing and mag- 
nanimity, 122. His defeat and cap- 
ture, 122. His fate, 124. Effect of his 
death on the tribe, 126. The Narra- 
gansetts seek to avenge the death of, 
126. 

Missionaries, credit of supporting, among 
the Indians, due to the Society for Prop- 
agating the Gospel, 249. 

Missions, the Puritan, 231. Mode of 
conducting, 234. Results of, 242. 
Causes of their failure, 244. The 
Puritan Church not entitled to the cred- 
it of, 249. The Anglican, in Virginia, 
251. The Jesuit, in New France, 253. 
Causes of their success. 255. 

Mohawks, The, the Puritans seek the 
alliance of, 148. 

Morton, Thomas, 35. Character of, 37- 
Treatment of, 39. 



500 



INDEX. 



N. 



Narragansetts, The, the Pequods seek 
the alliance of, 112. Treaty of, with 
Massachusetts, in reference to the Pe- 
quods, 114. Its unfairness, 119. The 
Mohegans intrigue against, 120. Seek 
the aid of Massachusetts, to avenge the 
death of Miantonimo, 126. But with- 
out success, 127. Send a deputation to 
Boston, 128. Their unjust treatment, 
129. Desperate condition of, 130. Pe- 
tition the king for redress, 130. A new 
treaty extorted from them, 131. Their 
lukewarmness in its observance, a cause 
for alarm, 132. Preparations for war 
against, 132. Destruction of, 133. 
Berkeley's testimony, as to what this 
tribe owe the English, 135. 

New England's Jonas Cast Up at London, 

43°- 
Nashaways, The, 141. 
Nianticks, The, 141. 
Nipnets, coalition of, with Philip, 141. 



O. 



Oldham, John, 108. Death of, 109. 
Ordinance of 1651, 459. 



Papal Supremacy, The, rise of, 378. 

Papal dominion. The, a system of spirit- 
ual feuds, 380. Introduced into Eng- 
land, 380. Steady growth of, in Eng- 
land, 381. Not sanctioned by the 
Church or nation, 381. 

Parliament, Massachusetts represented in, 
through the manor of East Greenwich, 
270. Asserts the Catholicity of the 
English Church, 389. The Long, en- 
courages the trade of Massachusetts, 
and enlists the Puritan State in its cause, 
269. Attacks the trade of Massachu- 
setts, 2^80. Orders Massachusetts to 
surrender her charter, 280. Massachu- 
setts petitions, 281. 

Penal Laws, levelled at railing at the 
Church, not at honest difference of 
opinion, 386. 

Persecution, spirit of, among the Protest- 
ant sects, 367. 

Persecutions by the Puritans, violations of 
the charter, and of the laws of England, 



227. Inconsistent with the claims of 
Puritanism, 229. 

Pequods, The, territory of, 107. Treaty 
of the Puritan Commonwealth with, 
107. Captain John Stone put to death 
by, 107. The death of Oldham leads to 
invasion of the territory of, no. En- 
decott's demands received by, with sur- 
prise, 112. Seek the alliance of the 
Narragansetts, 112. Total destruction 
of, 114. Winthrop's testimony in favor 
of, 116. Fate of the leaders in the 
expedition against, 116. 

Pessecus, 127. 

Philip, King, character of, 135. Treaty 
of, with the English, 137. Forms a 
coalition, 139. His preparations for 
war, 140. Death of, 144. Interview 
of, with Eliot, 247. 

Plymouth Company, grant of James I. 
to, 7. Ill success of, 8. Obtains a 
fresh grant, 9. Again fails, 10. Grand 
Council of, called upon to answer for 
the transfer of the charter, 46. Denies 
all knowledge of the transaction, 46. 
Surrender of its rights, 46. 

Political Religionism, 365. 

Press, The, restraint of the liberty of, in 
Massachusetts, 188. 

Protestantism, the triumph of reason over 
faith, 485. 

Puritanism, in New England, not encour- 
aged by the king, 43. Spirit of, as 
shown in Lechford's Letter, 74. Could 
not have claimed a missionary charac- 
ter, 231. Insecurity of, in Massachu- 
setts, felt by the elders, in consequence 
of its illegality, 261. The elders assert 
the Divine character of, 433. Causes 
of the increase of, in England, 395. 
Begins to embarrass the government, 
396. Causes the arbitrary acts of 
Charles I., 397. Develops rapidly un- 
der Abbot's protection, during the 
king's contests with parliament, 398. 
Character of, 484. The Protestantism 
of England, 486. Eminently supersti- 
tious, 486. Unfriendly to literature, 
488. Hostile to civil and religious lib- 
erty, 489. Advocates the indiscrim- 
inate use of the Bible, 490. Which 
causes its decline, 492. 

Puritan Church, The, 154. Peculiar 
position of the elders in, 157. Prac- 
tical inconveniences of the contract sys- 



INDEX. 



501 



tern, 159. To remedy which, the cov- 
enant is devised, 162. Foreign relations 
of, 160. Sympathizes with the Inde- 
pendents, 161. Want of vitality and 
unity in, 165. The Antlnomian here- 
sies, 169. Condition of, subsequent to 
the Antinomian troubles, 182. Divis- 
ion on the subject of baptism, 184. 
Synod convoked, 185. Second synod 
of, 187. Formation of the Third 
Church, 189. Intolerant spirit of, 191. 
Opposed to toleration, 193, 366. Rise 
of the Familists, 194. Persecution of 
Gorton, 195. Persecution of the Qu^ak- 
ers, 208. Of the Anabaptists, 222. 
These persecutions, violations of the 
charter, and of the laws of England, 
227. The mode of conducting the 
missions of, 234. Thomas Mayhew, 
235- John Eliot, 237. Results of 
these missions, 249. These missions 
contrasted with those of Virginia, 251. 
With the Jesuit missions, in New 
France, 253. The elders conspire 
against the crown, 260. Progress ot 
the elders from schism to sectarianism, 
365. Assertion of a Catholic minis- 
try, 409. Rapid assimilation of the 
Puritans with the Independents, 410. 
Renounces Catholic orders, as sinful, 
412. Growing enmity to the English 
Church, aided by superstition, 413. 
Puritan Commonwealth, The, 51. Na- 
ture of the government of, 52. The 
magistrates assume to be an oligarchy, 
53. The covenant, 54. The govern- 
ment, at first, a pure oligarchy, 55, 
Power exercised bv the board of direc- 
tors, 55. The freemen claim to be a 
privileged body, 56. Struggle between 
the aristocratic and liberal parties, 57. 
The general court becomes a legisla- 
ture, 60. The magistrates call the 
elders to their support, 61. The elders 
establish a council for life, 63. They 
erect the magistrates into a senate, 66. 
The judiciary and laws of, 76. Claims 
the common law, 78. The assistants 
claim to be judges, 80. The freemen 
demand a body of laws, 81. The 
criminal code of, 83. Severity of this 
code, 84. Its laws based upon the 
statutes of the Hebrew Commonwealth, 
86. Moral influence of, 90. Licen- 
tiousness in, 96. Essentially an eccle- 



siastical state, 99. Treatment of the 
aborigines by, 100. 
Puritans, The, the charter not intended 
as an immunity to, 25. Charged with 
disloyalty, and with violating the rights 
of the king's subjects, 34. Address of, 
to the Church, on leaving England, 
34. Charges against, investigated, 40. 
Favorable termination of the investiga- 
tion, 41. Further complaints against, 
41. Nature of the corporation govern- 
ment, 52. Right of the aborigines to 
their native soil, how regarded by, 10 1. 
Grasping spirit of, as testified to by 
Winslow, 104, 137. Seek the alliance 
of the Mohawks, in the war with the 
Tarranteens, 148. Terrible effects of 
the war of, 150. Avow the doctrines, 
but are false to the principles, of Inde- 
pendency, 156. Opposed to toleration, 
193, 366. Their want of zeal, in con- 
verting the Indians, 231. Troubled by 
the appearance of a comet, 303. Polit- 
ico-religionists, 367. The Conference 
at Hampton Court frustrates the designs 
of, 392. Grief of, at leaving England, 
404. The "Humble Request" from 
Yarmouth, 405. Ambiguity of this 
farewell, 408. Assertion ot a Catholic 
ministry by, 409. Rapid assimilation 
of, with the Independents, 410. Re- 
nounce Catholic orders, as sinful, 412. 

Quakers, The, origin of, 205. George 
Fox, 206. Arrive in Massachusetts, 
207. How regarded by the Puritans, 
207. Persecution of, 208. Frenzies 
of, 210. Laws respecting, 212. Ex- 
ecution of, 213. Execution of Mary 
Dyer, 215. Persecuted in Plymouth, 
New Haven, and Martha's Vineyard, 
216. Order from the king, requiring a 
cessation of all corporal and capital 
punishment of, 217. 



R. 



Randolph, Edward, dispatched to Boston 
by Charles II., 319. Is resisted in the 
discharge of his duties, 324. Zeal of, 
against Massachusetts, 325. Follows 
her agents to England, 328. Opens 
the way for the Church, 438. Presses 



502 



INDEX. 



for able and sober ministers, 440. Ar- 
bitrary proposals of, 442. Difficulties 
of, 445. 

Ratcliff, Philip, 35. Character of, 39. 
Punishment of, 40. Becomes a luna- 
tic, 40. 

Ratcliffe, Rev. Robert, arrival of, 443. 

Republicanism, growth of, in England, 
during the religious conflicts, 399. 

Restrictive System, character of the, 470. 
Defence of the, 472. 



Sassacus, Message of Endecott to, 112, 

113- 
Sausamon, treachery and death of, 139. 
Say and Seal, Lord, 63. 
Saxon Church, The, 371. 
Scaldic Mythology, fall of the, 376. 
Senate, erection of the magistrates into 

a, 66. 
Sequasson, 123. 
Squanto, 150. 

Stone, Captain John, murder of, 107. 
Stone, Samuel, 41. 



Tarranteens, The, war with, 146. Suc- 
cesses of, against the Puritans, 149. 
Magnanimity of, 150. 

Tobacco, duties upon, disregarded, 460. 

Toleration, the Puritans opposed to, 193, 
366. 

U. 

Uncas, 121, 123, 124. 



Vane, Henry, 169. Resigns the office of 
governor, 174. Left out of office, 177. 
Sails for England, 177. Remarkable 
prophecy concerning, 178. 

Virginia, loyalty of, 478. How account- 
ed for, 478. 



W. 



Waldron, Major, treachery and fate of, 
147. 

Wampanoags, The, 135. Kindness of, 
towards the colonists, 136. Treachery 
and death of Sausamon leads to war 
with, 140. Vigorous commencement 
of the war by, 142. Ultimately de- 
feated, 144. 

Wamsutta, 136. Dies of a broken heart, 
from being suspected of treachery, 137. 

Wars, the Puritan, terrible effects of, in 
Massachusetts, 150. 

Wilson, Rev. John, 175. 

Winslow, Governor, Letter of, 104. 

Winthrop, John, 54, 58, 62, 92, 95, 136. 
404. 

Wheelwright, Rev. John, 169. Sermon 
of, 173. Trial of, for sedition, 175. 
Banishment of, 180. 

Williams, Rev. Roger, 87, 102, 192. 

Wines, sale of, licensed by the general 
court, 95. 



Yarmouth, the " Humble Request " 
from, 405. 



ERRATUM. 

On page 365, fifth line from bottom, for Stuart read Steivart. 



«i#^' 



W XI 



C» o 















/ c-V 



b^"^.. 






-bo 



,\ 



x^^ ^... 






Y " 






0'; 



^^^' '^z^. 




o .\> 




,0' s 



-bo' 




A^^' '^^- 






* oV 




.•0- 



■-0 0^- 



ft 





,-0- 









rO' X 



'oo' 



■"^^ t*^'- 



% 







7u -'• 






"^^' 







1^ <. 






•^^rx\ 














V 



'/^, 



OO' 




% 



A 




xOo, 



v'^^ 



'^. 3 N 



V\^' 



>■ 



-4 r< 






.-.^^ -%. 



<i>. * „ . ,^ ' .^0- "-O '^ i, 




.0^ 









s'''^. 







-p^ V 



.^^■^ /.^ 



^. '. 



'*^X>^^" 



.■X' 



^ X"^ '^i. 




.s^^^ 



0° ^\^yr?^ 



